
Abraham Lincoln. 




JJIEW ^fORLD ^EROES 



LINCOLN AND GARFIELD : 

The Life-Story of two self-made Men, whom the 
people made Presidents. 

BY THE AUTHOR OF 

"Our Queen," "Grace Darling," etc., etc. 



'■ And moving up from high to higher, 
Becomes on fortune's crowning slope, 
The pillar of a people's hope, 
The centre of a world's desire." 



PRESTON: 
JAMES ASKEW, 30 GRAFTON STREET, 



, H 7 7 



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CONTENTS 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



CHAP. 










TAOS 


I. A Hero's Birthplace .... 1 


II. The First Sorrow 








: 7 


III. A New Mother .... 








. 14 


IV. His Own Business 










. 25 


V. Lawyer Lincoln 










. 31 


VI. A Husband and a Father . 










. 44 


VII. Nominated and Elected President 










56 


VIII. Congratulations 










65 


IX. From Springfield to Washington 










71 


X. War! 










63 


XL Emancipation .... 










91 


XII. Life at the White House . 










99 


XIII. Re-elected .... 










113 


XIV. Peace and Victory .... 










124 


XV. Afterwards 










134 



CONTENTS. 
JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

CHAP. 

I. A Forest Funeral . 
II. Hard Times . 

III. A Tow-Path Boy . 

IV. " The Disciples of Christ " 
V. At Hiram as a Student . 

VI, In College, and President of Hirai 
VII. Garfield on College Education 
VIII. Senator Garfield at the War 
IX. General Garfield in Congress 
X. The New Home at Mentor 
XI. Elected President . 
XII. Smitten Down 
XIII. The Wife and Mother . 
XIV. A Fight for Life . 
XV. The Funeral . 
XVI. In Memory of Garfield . 
XVII. Good out of Evil . 
XVIII. The End of the Wicked 
XIX. Comrades 
XX. What Made them Heroes ? 
XXI. The Lessons of their Lives 



PAGE 

151 

158 

168 

177 

184 

192 

202 

217 

226 

234 

243 

255 

267 

279 

290 

302 

CI 7 

328 

337 

346 

358 



2> education* 




O the boys and youths of Great 
Britain, whose only inheritance is 
the heritage of Work, this chronicle 
of two lives is affectionately dedi- 
cated, in the hope that it may inspire them with 
hope and courage for the race that is before them. 
The wish of the compiler is, that as it is read by 
British firesides, or in British playgrounds, many 
young eyes may brighten with new resolution — 
many hearts beat high with fresh determination. 
That which Abraham Lincoln and James Garfield 
were, others may become. Nearly, if not all, the 
possibilities that faced them stand waiting for 
those who have the power to win them. The tall 



vi DEDICATION. 

giant who emancipated the slaves, and the gentle- 
manly scholar whose guiding-star was Honesty, 
being dead yet speak ; and their cry rings through 
the land — LIVE WORTHILY, NOT FOR THYSELF, BUT 
FOR THY FELLOW-MAN, AND FOR THY GOD ! 
And it will surely reach the ears, and sink into 
the hearts of some whom the future shall crown 
as the New Heroes of the Old World ! 




mgAm^M 




ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 



NEW WORLD HEROES, 



CHAPTER L 



A HERO S BIRTHPLACE. 



" The short and simple annals of the poor." 




T may seem to matter very little where a hero 
is born; but the birthplace of any man is 
perhaps of more importance than is generally 
thought. Beautiful scenery, fresh air, the 
simple habits of an honest people, are in- 
fluences that affect more than a little the 
future of any child who is born into our world. It would 
be interesting to know how many of the great and good 
men of all ages first saw the light away from the busy 
town, and looked up to the blue skies through the inter- 
lacing boughs outside of some cottage home. Certainly we 
believe that a very large proportion of talented men and 
women had their birth, even in our crowded England, in 
the green country. It is little wonder that in America this 
should, in a very great degree, be the case. The boy of 
whom we write had for his earlv companions the birds and 

b 1 



2 NEW WORLD HEROES. 

the rabbits, and for his cradle-music the song of the brook 
and the winds, and the merry, dancing leaves j and though 
his after career lay in the midst of life and strife, and 
fulness of work and responsibility, we may well believe 
that he was the better and the stronger man because of the 
circumstances of his youth. 

Abraham Lincoln was born on the 12th day of February 
1809, at ISTolin Greek, a place that is now known as La Rue 
country, about a mile and a-half from Hodgenville, in the 
State of Kentucky. His father and mother were Baptists ; 
his early ancestors were English Quakers. His grand- 
father was one of the first to explore the rich and beautiful 
Kentucky valley. He was one of the pioneer frontiersmen 
to whom the States of America owe so much — a man stout 
of heart and strong of hand, a romantic adventurer, but 
God-fearing and faithful to conscience and duty. He had 
the courage, in spite of difficulty and danger, to establish 
his rude dwelling several miles away from any of his neigh- 
bours, and he paid the penalty of his temerity. He was at 
work one day some distance from home, when an Indian 
crept upon him unawares, and slew and scalped him. His 
widow was left with two daughters and three sons, who 
bore the names of Thomas, Mordecai, and Joseph. 

Thomas, the father of Abraham Lincoln, the hero of our 
story, was six years old at the time of his father's death. 
When he was twelve years old he was a hard-working lad ; 
and when he was twenty-eight he married Nancy Hanks, of 
Virginia, a woman who became a true help-meet to him in 
his backwoods life. She was pale and thin, and rather sad 
of countenance ; he was broad-chested and well built, and of 
average height. She could read, but not write ; he could 
manage, after a fashion, to write his own name. He was 
industrious and genial; she was possessed of excellent judg- 
ment and good sense, and particularly gentle and lovable. 
She was eminently a Christian woman, and supported the 



A HERO'S BIRTHPLACE. 3 

credit of her faith by a beautiful and irreproachable life. 
Every mother is the first and greatest teacher of her family ; 
but on Mrs. Lincoln devolved for some years the sole 
training of her children. She had two sons and one 
daughter. Thomas, however, died while yet a baby, and 
Abraham and his sister Sarah were close friends and 
inseparable companions. Their home was a very poor one. 
English people can scarcely imagine the kind of residence 
that a log-cabin really was : there was no floor to it, except 
the ground ; and no walls, except the rough ones made of 
logs; and there was almost no furniture in it. But the 
children had happy times, nevertheless. They had, as it 
seemed to them, the whole world for a play-ground. There 
were tall trees and thick undergrowth, green hills and run- 
ning streams, woods full of wild flowers, places to hide in, 
places to swing from, plenty of cool, fresh water to drink, 
and plenty of rich, ripe berries to eat. Then in the even- 
ings and on Sundays there were mother-talks for the 
children, which no child can miss without more or less of 
soul-starving. Mrs. Lincoln had only a few books, but she 
did the best she could with them. She read them, and told 
the children of their contents, and gradually taught them 
also to read. It is believed, indeed, that the only literature 
which belonged to the Lincoln cabin was two books — the 
Bible and the Catechism ; but they were good books from 
which to get first lessons, especially in the hands of a gentle, 
pious mother. There were no places of worship to which 
the children could be taken, but their own log-hut became 
a sanctuary in which the children were told "the sweet 
Story of Old," and where right principles were inculcated. 
Abraham was never tired of listening to his mother, and in 
her children she had most attentive listeners, who stimulated 
her recitals with very eager questions. 

"Mother, had the little Jew children black faces?" 

"No, Abe, I suppose not." 



4 NEW WORLD HEROES, 

M But they were like slaves in Egypt, were'nt they ? " 

" Oh yes, they were like slaves ; and if they did not work 
hard enough to please their masters they were whipped." 

"Were they like the slaves at Hodgen's mills and 
Elizabethtown, mother ? " 

"I suppose they were quite as badly off." 

" But they were'nt always to be slaves, were they, mother V 

" No, for God sent a Deliverer." 

" I know his name ; it was Moses." 

" Yes ; the little boy, who was laid in the ark of rushes 
which his mother made, grew up to be the Deliverer of his 
people from bondage," said the mother, solemnly. 

" Mother, do you think a Deliverer will come and set these 
slaves free 1 " 

" Perhaps. Who knows 1 If it be God's will, He can 
raise some one up." 

" You don't like slavery, do you, mother ? " 

"No, I do not. I cannot think it is right." 

" I hope God will send a Moses to Kentucky some day, 
mother, to make all the little boys free." 

And He did ! 

Abraham Lincoln was about seven years old when he 
had the opportunity of going to school. It was opened by 
Zechariah Reney, a Roman Catholic. We would like to 
have seen the school-room ; what a contrast it would 
present to the beautiful and convenient edifices erected 
by the School Boards of our own land and times ! At the 
end of three months Abraham and his sister went to either 
another school, or the same school kept by another master, 
whose name was Caleb Hazel, and there he remained 
another three months, making such rapid progress that at 
the end of the time he was able to read aloud to his parents 
some of the plain and easy parts of the Bible, a feat which 
astonished and delighted them, and caused them to feel 
more than a little proud of their boy. 



A HERO'S BIRTHPLACE. 5 

In the year 1816, when little Abraham Lincoln was 
nearly eight years old, his father decided to leave Kentucky 
for the wilds of Indiana. No one knows exactly why he 
did this. Perhaps he liked the excitement of a change. 
But it is more probable that as there was at the time a 
great deal of dispute about the titles to lands in Kentucky, 
he considered a residence there somewhat full of risk. 
And life in a slave state was always more or less unsatis- 
factory to the poor white man, who would be more likely 
to find better scope for himself and his children where free 
labour would not come into competition with slave labour, 
and he therefore made up his mind to go further west 
without loss of time. 

As if to assure him that his decision was a right one, a 
man by the name of Colby came to the cabin. 

" Are you going to move away from this 1 " he asked. 

" I guess I am," replied Thomas Lincoln. 

" I want to buy a farm, if you are inclined to sell," said 
Colby ; " and I don't mind three hundred dollars for this 
real estate, if you are willing to make it over to me." 

"I guess I'll do it," said Lincoln, with a look at his wife, 
who was more cautious and timid, perhaps because she was 
less strong than her husband. But she was willing to 
abide by his decision, and to make a home wherever her 
dear ones went. 

Very strangely, as it seems to us, who live in the days 
when, happily, both in America and England, temperance 
principles are strong, Lincoln sold his farm for whisky. 
Ten barrels of whisky, of forty gallons each, valued at two 
hundred and eighty dollars, and twenty dollars in money, 
was the price which Colby paid, and Thomas Lincoln 
received for the farm and homestead ! The whisky was for 
sale, and not to drink ; and Abraham, when he grew to be 
a man, became a friend to Temperance. 

The father of the family having sold his home, went off 



6 NEW WORLD HEROES. 

to find a new one, leaving his wife and children in the old 
place while he did so. 

He built a "flat-boat" (something like a gondola), and 
launched it on a little stream called " the Rolling Fork ; " 
and in it he packed his ten barrels of whisky, and all the 
heavy articles of his home and farm. Then he went floating 
away down the Rolling Fork, out into the Ohio river, in 
which he came to grief, for his boat upset, and his cargo 
went into the water. Fortunately, however, he was near the 
shore, and succeeded, by the help of some friendly hands, 
in rescuing some of the whisky and other articles, which, if 
poor in themselves, were very valuable to him. He landed 
at a place called Thompson's Ferry, Indiana, and there he 
paid with his flat-boat for the services of a man and his 
team to take him and his possessions into the interior. It 
was slow travelling, for they had often to make the road 
before they could traverse it, by cutting down the trees and 
brushwood in the way. But at last they reached a spot of 
great beauty and fertility, and here Thomas Lincoln decided 
to make his future home. 

The first thing to be clone was clearly to go back at once 
and fetch his wife and children ; and this, having given 
his goods into the care of the inhabitants of a house only 
two miles away, he started to do. 




CHAPTER II 



THE FIRST SORROW. 



" Friend after friend departs, 
Who lias not lost a friend ? 




T was no pleasant or easy task that was before 
Mrs. Lincoln and her children. 

They welcomed with great glee the return of 
the husband and father, and tired though he was after his 
long walk, he had at once to begin answering their questions. 

" Have you found a place, father 1 Will it be our own ? 
Where is it ? What is it like 1 " 

They lost no time in starting on the journey. They bade 
good-bye to the little home, which, poor as it was, they all 
loved, with tears. Then they all went to look their last at 
the tiny grave of the baby who had died several years ago. 
When Abraham had grown to be both a tall and a great 
man, he used to speak of this incident with emotion. 

But a long journey was before them, for a distance of a 
hundred miles separated the new home from the old, and it 
would take a week for them to go from one to the other. 
They had a cow, which, of course, they must take with them 
for the sake of her milk, three horses, and a waggon. They 



8 NEW WORLD HEROES. 

managed to pack in the waggon and on the horses all their 
household articles, which were very few ; and as to them- 
selves, Mrs. Lincoln and Sarah might ride if they liked, but 
the father and the son walked the greater part of the 
distance, for the horses had to be led and the cow to be 
driven. When they reached the proper part of the river 
Ohio, they were floated across in a flat-boat, and at the end 
of the seventh day they reached the spot which Thomas 
Lincoln had selected. 

It was near the present town of Gentryville, in what was 
then Perry County, but is now Spencer County, that Mr. 
Lincoln and his son and a neighbour at once set to work to 
build a new log-cabin. It had two rooms, one downstairs, 
and a small attic or loft above. Sarah and her parents slept 
below, in what was the living room of the family ; and 
Abraham slept in the loft, on the rough logs that made the 
floor. A bear-skin was spread for him to lie upon, and a 
blanket covered him. The bedstead of his father and 
mother was made of slabs nailed together against the side 
of the cabin, and their bed was a heap of dried leaves 
thrown upon the slabs. A rough table and three stools 
formed the rest of the furniture. There was always a good 
fire burning in the cabin, and when it was very cold, all the 
family slept around it ; while skins were nailed over the 
doors to keep out the biting winds. 

Winter was upon them, but Spring would follow ; and 
Thomas Lincoln and his son began the hard work of 
clearing the forest, and preparing the land to receive the 
seed which they would put into it. Abraham, of course, 
helped him ; and he proved the truth of the saying, " It is 
good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth." He 
grew strong and hardy, self-denying and brave. He was 
very industrious ; and when his day's work upon the forest 
or the farm was finished, he was free to spend some happy 
hours with his friends, and in the way he liked best. 



THE FIRST SORROW. 9 

Besides the Bible and the Catechism, there had been 
added to the family treasures an old copy of Dilworth's 
Spelling Book, and by the aid of this young Abraham 
Lincoln continued his education. Altogether he had 
enjoyed less than a year's schooling, but he had made as 
much as he could of the little ; and he had begun to write 
and to "cipher." He practised well at home. Pens and 
ink and paper were luxuries unknown to, or at least 
unenjoyed by, the pioneer and his family; but Abraham 
did very well without them, for he managed to write letters 
or figures on the white surface of the bark of the birch-tree 
with charcoal. They had fine fun over the spelling and the 
reckoning, for Abraham tried to keep school at home, and 
change his parents and his sister into scholars. 

About this time he came into possession of one or two 
other books. The first was JZsop's Fables, with which he 
was greatly delighted. It had pictures at which he never 
wearied of looking, and stories which interested him so 
deeply, that he read them over until they were firmly fixed 
in his own mind ; and then he related them for the 
amusement and edification of his sister Sarah. About the 
next book that he read his mother took care often to 
talk to him. It was Bunyan's Pilgrims Progress. The 
boy seemed to have the opportunity of reading it just at 
the time when he needed its instruction. 

11 You see, my boy, that there is another land, and a 
journey to be taken to the Celestial City," said his mother 
to him one day, little thinking that she was herself drawing 
very near to its gates. 

"Yes, mother; and it must be a very beautiful city 
that ! " 

" Ah ! my son, you cannot guess how lovely ; and the 
best of it is that there we shall see Jesus, and the next best, 
that there will be no such thing known as sin." 

" It will be a very wonderful place then, where every- 



10 NEW WORLD HEROES. 

body is good. I am afraid there is not much chance for 
me." 

" Indeed there is ! The King wishes to have my Abe in 
the beautiful city, and He will guide you if you ask Him. 
Only you must be willing to forsake sin here, and so be 
prepared for the holiness there." 

And Abraham would say softly to his mother, and yet 
more earnestly to himself, that he meant to be good, and 
would really try to be. 

Another book that he read was Weem's Life of 
Washington. It was a very exciting book, full of fighting 
and adventures, and it fired his young imagination greatly. 
Many years afterward he spoke of that book : — " I remember 
all the accounts there given of the battle-fields and 
struggles for the liberties of the country. I recollect 
thinking then, boy even though I was, that there must 
have been something more than common that these men 
struggled for." 

The next book he read was also very useful to him ; it 
was the Life of Henry Clay, who was at that time 
exceedingly famous. Since Abraham Lincoln was himself 
to become a politician and statesman, it was well for him 
to read of the brilliant speeches of this young orator, made 
on subjects that so nearly affected the interests of his 
country. 

But Abraham had much to do besides read books. To 
get wood for his mother, to carry water for her, and help 
her in every way, was a pleasure to him ; and he was 
besides learning to be a very useful help to his father. At 
that time he was dressed in coat and trousers made of 
buckskin, and was not afraid of either hard work or cold 
weather. On one occasion, too, he proved that he was not 
afraid to handle a gun. His father had taken his axe and 
gone away to work in the forest, when Abraham, looking 
through a crevice of the log-cabin, saw a flock of wild 



THE FIRST SORROW. 11 

turkeys outside. He knew that these were worth having, 
for the family lived chiefly on game shot by the father. 
But the father was not there to shoot, and what was to be 
done ? The boy, only about eight years old at the time, 
could not bear to let so good an opportunity pass ; and so 
he called his mother. 

"Could you load father's gun? Here is a flock of 
turkeys ! If you can, I will have a shot." 

Mrs. Lincoln peeped through the opening. 

" They are beauties ! Could you pull the trigger, Abe ? " 

" Yes, mother \ load it and see." 

In less than a minute the boy had fired into the midst of 
the birds, and hit one of the finest. 

There was great glee when Mr. Lincoln returned. 

" Father," said Sarah, " guess what there is for dinner 
to-morrow ? " 

"Fish?" 

« No." 

" Flesh 1 " 

» No." 

"Fowl?" 

" Yes, a turkey. * 

" A turkey, indeed. Where is it to come from 'i " 

"It has come already." 

"You are joking. Let me see it." 

It was drawn from its hiding-place with a triumphant 
"There!" 

" But what does this mean. Who shot it ? " 

"Abraham." 

" Did you really, Abe ? " The boy stood blushing with 
pleasure. " It is a wonderful shot for a boy of your age," 
said Thomas Lincoln. " You will become a great hunter 
one of these days." 

Abraham Lincoln, however, never became very fond of a 
gun. 



12 NEW WORLD HEROES. 

But a shadow was gathering over the Lincoln's home. 

They had only been in Indiana two years, when it became 
evident that Mrs. Lincoln was dying of consumption. It 
was some time before her husband and children could 
believe that so great a trouble was befalling them. But 
she knew it herself, and the coming separation made her 
love them more than ever. 

" Let me do something for you, mother," Abraham would 
say ; and she was glad to give up the work which she had 
done so long and so well. 

" I am getting too weak to do it," she said. 

At last she could not leave her bed ; and it was Abra- 
ham's task to read to her the words which have comforted 
so many dying Christians. There was no minister ; but the 
beautiful sayings of Jesus was not less powerful because 
they were conveyed by the clear tones of a boy's voice. 
" Let not your heart be troubled : ye believe in God, believe 
&lso in me. In my Father's house are many mansions. If 
it were not so I would have told you. I go to prepare a 
place for you." 

And soon the place was hers. 

There was great desolation in the log-cabin when the 
mother had died. Abraham keenly felt her loss ; and he 
cried as if his heart would break when he and his sister 
stood with their father by the humble grave in the forest. 
A few friends came to the funeral, but there was not even 
an itinerant preacher — the only kind they ever had — in 
these parts. 

But there had been one, Mr. Elkins, a Baptist, who 
sometimes conducted open-air services among the few 
settlers, and sometimes gave exhortations in their cabins. 
Mrs. Lincoln had known and respected him ; and it was 
decided that a letter should be sent to ask him to come 
and preach a funeral sermon. 

" I will write a letter," said Abraham, whose heart was 



THE FIRST SORROW. 13 

very much in the matter. And accordingly, with the feeling 
that he was doing a very great thing indeed, the boy wrote 
his first letter, telling the minister that his mother had died 
happily, trusting in Jesus, and that he, and his father, and 
his sister would be glad if Mr. Elkins would come and 
preach a funeral sermon. Thomas Lincoln praised the per- 
formance of his son, and the letter was despatched. As 
soon as possible the answer came, and it was to the effect 
that Mr. Elkins would be with them at a certain time. He 
had to journey a hundred miles to fulfil the engagement 
but he did so willingly, and found that young Abraham had 
been so busy making known the service, that there was 
quite a large congregation to hear the sermon. Mules and 
horses, ox -teams and waggons, had been pressed into 
service ; and on a beautiful Sunday morning Parson Elkins 
stood at the head of the simple grave in the forest, and the 
people, old and young, pressed around to hear the words of 
life which he spoke. It was a simple service, but very 
solemn and beautiful. The hymn that rang through the 
air came from the hearts of the people ; and they listened, 
as those who were in earnest, to the preacher's words, or 
joined with fervour in his prayer. Seeds were sown that 
day that brought forth fruit a hundred-fold. 

When the congregation dispersed in silence, there re- 
mained, with his hat off, and his face full of serious resolve, 
the boy whom the dead woman had loved so dearly, and for 
whom she had prayed unceasingly. And who can tell what 
solemn vows, that were afterward fulfilled in the life, were 
made by young Abraham Lincoln, as he stood at his 
mother's grave on that never-to-be-forgotten day ! 



CHAPTER III. 

A NEW MOTHER. 

" Then spake the angel of mothers 
To me in a gentle tone, 
' Be kind to the children of others, 
And God will bless thine own. ' :J 




T was a sad home in which Mr. Lincoln and his 
motherless children lived; but they made it as 
happy as they could. A school was opened in the 
neighbourhood by Mr. Crawford, who helped Abraham 
Lincoln in many things, and especially in arithmetic, of 
which the lad became very fond. He got to write so well 
that he became " the general letter-writer of the neighbour- 
hood." His love of books grew upon him, and Mr. Craw- 
ford gratified it by lending him Ramsay's Life of Washington. 

He ran home with it, and burst into the cabin in such a 
state of joyous excitement that his sister looked up in 
surprise. 

" Why, Abe, what is the matter with you % * 

" A new book ! a new book ! " 

" Oh, capital ! " said Sarah, who sympathised with every- 
thing that interested her brother. Indeed, the two, since 



A NEW MOTHER. 15 

their mother's death, had become more fond of each other 
than ever. 

"What book is it?" cried the father, who was as 
rejoiced as his children over a new volume. 

"It is another book about Washington; better than the 
other, because it has more solid facts, at least so Mr. Craw- 
ford says, and the writer's name is Ramsay." 

" I will leave off my work then, and we will have some 
of it this evening." 

So Thomas Lincoln sat by the fire-place in an attitude of 
rest and reflection, Sarah got her sewing or her knitting, 
and Abraham, with his back to the fire, so that the blaze 
might fall upon the book, read to his loving listeners hour 
after hour in such a way as to prove that he really entered 
into the spirit of the book. Indeed, he grew so interested 
in it that he did not wish to lay it aside either for sleep or 
for work. He read it the last thing at night and the first 
in the morning. 

" Put down the book, Abe," his father would say, " and 
go and finish that wood." 

"All right, father," said the lad; and immediately became 
so engrossed again in the book that he forgot everything 
else. 

This was the case one night, and led to consequences that 
might have been very serious. He was reading after his 
father had retired to rest. Thomas, waking from a dream, 
to find his son still reading, became angry, and peremptorily 
ordered him to go to bed at once. Abraham laid down the 
book, and went off so hurriedly that he did not notice that 
he had placed it in the window. In the night a storm 
arose, and rain fell heavily. The next morning, when 
Abraham rose early, intending to have "one little read" 
before beginning the work of the day, he was dismayed to 
find that the rain had beaten in through the window, and 
the book was soaked through with water. 



16 NEW WORLD HEROES. 

His heart sank at the remembrance of Mr. Crawford s 
assertion that that was the only copy of the book in the 
neighbourhood, and the thought that it had been spoiled 
through his carelessness. But he thought the best way 
would be to go to Mr. Crawford at once and confess the 
truth. So away he went to the schoolmaster, and with 
blushing face told his story. 

"I am very sorry, sir, but I left your book near the 
window last night, and the rain came in and spoiled it." 

" Let me look at it. Oh ! what a pity. How could you 
be so careless, Abe ? " 

" I don't know, sir. I am ashamed of myself. I cannot 
pay for the damage, I know ; no money could do it, and I 
have none; but if you will let me work out the cost I shall 
be very glad." 

11 1 think you had better buy the book, Abe." 

" Buy it, sir ; how can I do that ? " 

" Come and pull fodder for me for two or three days, and 
the book shall be yours." 

Yery gratefully the boy set about the task ; and Mr. 
Crawford had no reason to complain of the amount of work 
which he did in the time, and at the end of three days he 
went home, carrying the treasure that was now his own. 

When Mrs. Lincoln had been dead a year, Mr. Lincoln 
married again. His second wife was a widow, Mrs. Sally 
Johnson of Elizabethtown, Kentucky. She had three 
children of her own, so that the family circle become con- 
siderably enlarged. Mrs. Lincoln proved a good and kind 
mother-in-law. She loved Abraham almost as much as if 
he were her own son. She pitied and admired him before 
she married his father ; and it is said, indeed, that it was 
this love of the boy that was the chief reason of the union. 

She soon set about making the home more comfortable. 

"Cannot you make a puncheon floor, Thomas?" she 
asked of her husband. 



A NEW MOTHER. 17 

M T could, if I tried," said Mr. Lincoln. 

"Then I wish you would try. The house would be so 
much more comfortable. We must make it as warm and 
cosy as we can for the children's sake. Abe is a great, 
strong fellow, who does not mind roughing it ; but Sarah is 
only a delicate little girl, who needs taking care of." 

And the good woman proceeded to take care of her 
excellently. She made warm, comfortable beds for both 
the children, and provided them with clothing thick and 
suitable for the cold weather ; and made them both feel glad 
that they had once more a mother's loving care. Alas ! 
Sarah did not live to enjoy it very long. She soon followed 
her own mother to heaven. 

In the meantime Abraham Lincoln was growing in 
stature, and it seemed in favour also with God and 
man. 

An incident occurred about this time which illustrated 
both his great strength and his kindness of heart. He and 
some other young men had been engaged in erecting the 
frame of a new house, when, as they were returning to their 
homes in the evening, they saw, standing by the roadside, a 
horse saddled and bridled. 

" Hullo ! " said young Lincoln, " here is Jim's horse. I 
suppose the stupid fellow is drunk, as usual. Let us see if 
we can find him." 

A search was made, and presently the owner of the horse 
was discovered, chilled and unconscious. 

"There let him lie, and serve him right," said one of the 
young men. " I hope it will teach him a lesson." 

" It is more likely to kill him," said Abraham. " It is 
too bad to leave him here to die." 

"Not at all. He has brought it on himself." 

" Never mind. Here, lift him on my shoulders, will you 1 
I will carry him to the nearest house." 

And he did so. " Call and tell my father where I am, 
b 2 



18 NEW WORLD HEROES. 

please," he said to his companions ; and then he remained 
with the drunken man until he became sober. 

It was the first, but by no means the last life that 
Abraham Lincoln saved. It was the beginning of his 
career as a deliverer from slavery ! It proved him to 
possess that kindness of heart which fits a man for any 
position, from the lowest to the highest. 

His character was developing in many ways. Especially 
was he on the alert to obtain knowledge ; and this per- 
severance helped him when another and less determined 
spirit would have failed. 

The Rev. J. P. Gulliver once said to him in the after- 
ward, when his high position was attained — " Mr. Lincoln, I 
very much want to know how you got your very unusual 
power of 'putting things.' No man has it by nature alone. 
What has your education been 1 " 

Mr. Lincoln replied — " Well, as to education the news- 
papers are correct. I never went to school more than 
twelve months in my life. But, as you say, this must be a 
product of culture in some form. I have been putting the 
question you ask me to myself while you have been talking. 
I can say this, that among my earliest recollections, I 
remember how, when a mere child, I used to get irritated 
when anybody talked to me in a way I could not under- 
stand. I don't think I ever got angry at anything else in 
my life. But that always disturbed my temper, and has 
ever since. I can remember going to my little bed-room, 
after hearing the neighbours talk of an evening with my 
father, and spending no small part of the night walking up 
and down, and trying to make out what was the exact 
meaning of some of their, to me, dark sayings. I could not 
sleep, though I often tried to, when I got on such a hunt 
after an idea, until I had caught it ; and when I thought I 
had got it, I was not satisfied until I had repeated it over 
and over — until I had put it in language plain enough, as T 






A NEW MOTHER. 19 

thought, for any boy I knew to comprehend. This was a 
kind of passion with me, and it has since stuck by me, for I 
am never easy now, when handling a thought, till I have 
bounded it north and bounded it south, bounded it east 
and bounded it west. Perhaps that accounts for the 
characteristics you observe in my speeches, though I never 
put the things together before." 

Of his habits and deeds while he was still at home with 
his father and his stepmother we get a very good picture 
from Lamon's Life of Abraham Lincoln: — 

"Abe never went to school again in Indiana or else- 
where. Mr. Turnham tells us that he had excelled all his 
masters, and it was no use for him to attempt to learn any- 
thing from them. But he continued his studies at home, 
or wherever he was hired out to work, with a perseverance 
which showed that he could scarcely live without some 
species of mental excitement. Abe loved to lie under a 
shade-tree, or up in the loft of the cabin, and read, cipher, 
and scribble. At night he sat by the chimney- 'jamb,' and 
ciphered, by the light of the fire, on the wooden fire shovel. 
When the shovel was fairly covered he would shave it off 
with Tom Lincoln's knife, and begin again. In the day- 
time he used boards for the same purpose out of doors, and 
went through the shaving process everlastingly. His step- 
mother repeats often that he read every book he could lay 
his hands on. She says, 'Abe read diligently ; and when he 
came across a passage that struck him, he would write it 
down on boards if he had no paper, and keep it there until 
he did get paper. Then he would re-write it, look at it, 
repeat it. He had a copy-book — a kind of scrap-book — in 
which he put down all things, and thus preserved them.' 

" John Hanks came out from Kentucky when Abe was 
fourteen years of age, and lived four years with the 
Lincolns. We cannot describe some of Abe's habits better 
than John has described them for us : — When 



20 NEW WORLD HEROES. 

Lincoln, Abo, and I returned to the house from work, he 
would go to the cupboard, snatch a piece of corn bread, take 
down a book, sit down in a chair, cock his legs up high as 
his head, and read. He and I worked barefooted, grubbed 
it, ploughed, mowed, and cradled together ; ploughed corn, 
gathered it, and shucked corn. Abraham read constantly 
when he had opportunity; and he transferred extracts 
to the boards and the scrap-book. He had procured the 
scrap-book because most of his literature was borrowed ; 
and he thought it profitable to take copious notes from the 
books before he returned them. 

" At home, with his step-mother and the children, he was 
the most agreeable fellow in the world. He was always ready 
to do everything for everybody. When he was not doing 
some special act of kindness he told stories or cracked jokes. 
He was as full of his yarns in Indiana as ever he was in 
Illinois. Dennis Hanks was a clever hand at the same 
business, and so was old Tom Lincoln. Among them they 
must have made things very lively during the long winter 
evenings. " 

Mrs. Lincoln was never able to speak of Abe's conduct 
to her without tears. She spoke with deep emotion of her 
own son, but said she thought that Abe was kinder, better, 
truer than the other. Even the mother's instinct was lost 
as she looked back over those long years of poverty and 
privation in the Indian cabin, where Abe's grateful love 
softened the rigours of her lot, and his great heart and 
giant frame were always at her command. "Abe was a 
good boy," said she, " and I can say what scarcely one woman 
— a mother — can say in a thousand : Abe never gave me a 
cross word or look, and never refused, in fact or appearance, 
to do anything I asked him." 

Abraham had another sorrow when his own mother had 
been dead four years. His sister Sarah died. She was 
married when she was only fourteen years old ; and when 



A NEW MOTHER. 21 

she was fifteen she died. It was a great trouble to her 
brother, for the two had been not only brother and sister, 
but very close and dear friends. 

When he was about eighteen years old, Abraham Lincoln 
left home on an expedition, and it came about in this wise : — 

" We have more farm produce than we shall require," 
said Thomas Lincoln. 

" Let us sell it then," said his son. 

" But how can we do that 1 " 

" We will export it ; that is the right thing to do with the 
over-abundance of any neighbourhood. Now, I will build a 
flat-boat, and take the produce down the river to the market, 
and there sell it." 

" Could you build a boat 1 " asked his father. 

" Yes, I'm sure I could, and I will too, if you only give 
me leave. I know the use of tools." 

"But New Orleans is a long way off, and Abe is young," 
objected Mrs. Lincoln. " I don't think I could give my 
consent." 

" I will not go unless you do, mother," said the lad ; " but 
I should like to go very much. I want to see the world a 
little, and this will give me an opportunity." 

" We could do a good deal better if we had more money," 
said Mr. Lincoln. 

"Abe might get it this way." 

" That is what I want to do, father. It is time I did more 
than I can do at home. You are not afraid to trust me, are 
you, mother V 

" Not at all, my boy ; you will do what is right I know, 
for you are steady enough. You would not take to drink- 
ing whisky." 

" Not I. I have never tasted it, and do not intend to do 
so." 

" But if any harm should come to you, Abe, the extra 
money would do us very little good." 



22 NEW WORLD HEROES. 

" But what harm will come % Let me try." 

"Very well, you may try." 

Abraham at once set to work. He had not many tools, 
but he was expert in the use of them, and was indeed rather 
fond of showing his mechanical skill. He lost no time in 
building a boat, and made it as complete as he could. 
When it was nearly finished, a steamer stopped opposite the 
place where he was at work. Two gentlemen wanted to be 
taken on board. 

" Is that boat yours 1 " one inquired, looking at that 
which Abraham had made. 

"Yes, sir." 

"Will you take us and our luggage across to the 
steamer 1 " 

" Certainly," said Abraham, beginning at once to shoulder 
the trunks. When they were placed on the flat-boat, the 
gentlemen sat on them. Abraham sculled them across. 
They sprang on the steamer, and the young man lifted the 
trunks on deck. Almost immediately the steamer started. 
But the gentlemen had forgotten to pay the young boatman, 
who had hoped to get some money. He thought he would 
remind them ; he did not expect to get much ; but he knew 
the service was worth something, and that he ought to get 
a little. 

" You have forgotten to pay me," he said ; and the two 
gentlemen, thus reminded, promptly threw each of them a 
silver half-dollar, which fell on the bottom of the boat. 
Abraham was delighted. He never forgot the pleasure it 
gave him, and he referred to the incident in after life. " It 
was the first dollar I had ever earned. I could scarcely 
believe my eyes. You may think it a very little thing, but 
it was a most important incident in my life. I could 
scarcely believe that I, a poor boy, had earned a dollar in less 
than a day. The world seemed wider and fairer before me. 
I was a more hopeful and confident being from that time." 



A NEW MOTHER. 23 

When Abraham returned from the market, he settled 
down for a time to the ordinary work of the farm. He 
used to take the corn to the mill to get it ground. The 
mill was fifty miles away from where the Lincolns lived ; 
so the grist was fastened to the back of a horse, and thus 
taken. The mill was driven by horse-power, and each 
customer had to use his own animal to grind his own corn, 
and each man had to wait his turn. On one occasion 
Abraham had fastened his mare to the lever, and he gave her 
a " cluck " and a cut with a switch : when she suddenly lifted 
her heels and kicked him. The blow sent him to the 
ground prostrate aud insensible. As soon, however, as he 
came to himself, he finished the "cluck" that had been 
interrupted, and made the mare finish the work and carry 
the meal home. 

He was fond of the water, and soon after took another 
trip. He was at this time nineteen years old, and was then 
six feet four high. All who knew him respected and trusted 
him. 

" Abe," said a neighbour, " what do you say to a voyage 

down the Mississippi, and to take charge of my flat-boat 

and its cargo to the sugar plantation near New Orleans 1 " 
"I should like it very much," said the young man, to 

whom a ride of eighteen hundred miles opened a delightful 

prospect of seeing the world. 

" My son will go with you ; but I shall trust the whole 

cargo, including him, to your care. I know that you have 

tact, ability, and honesty, and these will guide you. I shall 

invest a good round sum in the enterprise, but I am not 

afraid to trust you." 

" I will go, and do the best I can for you," said the young 

man ; and when the time for starting came, he set off' in 

good spirits. 

Sometimes the journey was easy and pleasant, the swift 

current of the " Father of Waters " bearing them along. 



24 NEW WORLD HEROES. 

Sometimes they had to work hard with the long oars to keep 
the boat in safety. At night they tied-up alongside of the 
bank, and rested upon the hard deck, with a blanket for a 
covering; and during the hours of light — whether their 
lonely trip was cheered by a bright sun, or made disagree- 
able in the extreme by violent storms — their craft floated 
down the stream, its helmsmen never for a moment losing 
their spirits, or regretting their acceptance of the positions 
they occupied. 

Some small adventures they had on their journey, talks 
with settlers and hunters, and other flat-boat men ; but 
they had an adventure that was not small when they had 
come near to the end of their journey. 

They had reached a sugar plantation between Natchez 
and New Orleans, and had pulled their boat in and fastened 
it to the shore for the night. But when they had lain down 
on their hard bed in the little cabin, they heard a scuffling. 
Abraham called out " Who's there 1 " Receiving no answer 
he wont up on deck, and found seven negroes bent on 
plunder. He caught up a handspike and knocked one into 
the water ; the second, third, and fourth were served the 
same way. The rest began to see that they had no 
ordinary assailant to deal with, and tried to run away ; but 
Abraham and his companion leaped on shore and pursued 
them. The white young men were exhausted and hurt, 
though not seriously ; but they drifted down the river for a 
few miles further before they again betook themselves to 
sleep. 

The expedition was a very successful one; the cargo and 
the boat were disposed of advantageously, and Abraham 



CHAPTER IV. 



HIS OWN BUSINESS. 




Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might." 

HE father of Abraham Lincoln liked change, and 
by this time he had begun to grow tired of 
Indiana. In March 1830, when Abraham had 
just completed his majority, the family moved away from 
Indiana farm to the fertile prairie lands of Illinois. Dennis 
Hanks had been sent to see if the stories told were true 
ones ; and as he brought back a good report, Thomas 
Lincoln sold his land, and they started. Their goods were 
packed in ox waggons, one of which was driven by Abra- 
ham. The journey occupied fifteen days; and in con- 
sequence of the heavy rain, which had swollen the rivers^ 
was often very difficult. At one time, when they wer£ 
crossing the lands by Kaskaskia River, the men had to 
wade through water that was several feet in depth. After 
a journey of two hundred miles they entered Macon County, 
in the State of Illinois ; and Mr. Lincoln selected for his 
home a pleasant spot on the north side of the Sangamon 
River, where the prairie land was bordered by tjeees, about 
ten miles west of Decatur. 



26 NEW WORLD HEROES. 

There they halted, and there a home was made. They 
first cleared a space for it, and next built a log-cabin. 
Forest trees were hewn down for the purpose, and then 
split. It took about four days to build the house, Abraham 
working harder than anyone until it was finished. It was 
" nine logs " high, and about eighteen feet by sixteen in 
size. It had a peaked roof. The trees used in the manu- 
facture were hickory, hackberry, red elm, walnut, bass- 
wood, honey, locust, and sassafras. A half sheet of oiled 
paper let in the light. John Hanks afterwards exhibited 
this cabin with great pride, showing how he and Abraham 
Lincoln had worked together building and splitting rails. 
The only tools they had were a common axe, a broad axe, a 
hand-saw, and a " drawer" knife. The cabin is now in the 
museum of Mr. Barnum in New York. 

When the house was finished, the young " rail-splitter,' 
as he was afterwards called, split rails enough to enclose a 
ten -acre lot ; and having done that, he helped to plough and 
plant the ten-acre field, and then announced his intention of 
leaving his father's house, and beginning on his own 
account. 

The author of the Athens of America speaks thus 
eloquently of Abraham Lincoln as he was at this time : — 
" His youth was now spent, and at the age of twenty-one 
he left his father's house to begin the world for himself. A 
small bundle, a laughing face, and an honest heart — these 
were his visible possessions, together with that unconscious 
character and intelligence which his country afterwards 
learned to prize. In the long history of ' worth depressed ' 
there is no instance on record of such a contrast between 
the depression and the triumph ... No academy, no 
university, no alma mater of science or learning had 
nourished him. No government had taken him by the 
hand, and given to him the gift of opportunity. No 
inheritance of land or money Im.d fallen to him. No friend 



HIS OWN BUSINESS. 2? 

stood by his side. He was alone in poverty, and yet not 
all alone. There was God above, who watches all, and 
does not desert the lowly. Simple in life and manners, 
and knowing nothing of form or ceremony, with a village 
schoolmaster for six months as his only teacher, he had 
grown up in companionship with the people, with nature, 
with trees, with the fruitful corn, and with the stars. 
While yet a child his father had borne him away from a 
soil wasted by slavery, and he was now the citizen of a 
free state, where free labour had been placed under the 
safeguard of irreversible compact and fundamental law. 
And thus closed the youth of the future President, happy 
at least that he could go forth under the day-star of 
Liberty." 

He began by hiring himself to a farmer in the neigh- 
bourhood. With four yoke of oxen he broke up fifty acres 
of prairie land. During the winter he was engaged in 
splitting rails and chopping wood. 

A curious story was told to the Rev. A. Hale about him 
by Mrs. Brown. Mr. Lincoln's name was mentioned, and 
she said, "Well, I remember Mr. Linken. He worked 
with my old man thirty-four year ago, and made a crop. 
We lived on the same farm where we live now, and he 
worked all the season and made a crop of corn, and the 
next winter they hauled the crop all the way to Galena, 
and sold it for two dollars and a half a bushel. At that 
time there was no public-houses, and travellers were 
obliged to stay at any house at night that could take them 
in. One evening a right smart-looking man rode up to the 
fence, and asked my old man if he could take him in. 
4 Well,' said Mr. Brown, 'we can feed your critter and give 
you something to eat ; but we can't lodge you unless you 
can sleep on the same bed with the hired man.' The man 
hesitated, and asked, 'Where is he?' and Mr. Brown 
took him round to where, in the shade of the house, 



28 NEW WORLD HEROES. 

Mr. Lincoln lay his full length on the ground, with an open 
book before him. 'There he is,' said Mr. Brown. The 
stranger looked at him a minute, and then said, 'Well, I 
think he'll do,' and he stayed and slept with the future 
President of the United States." 

George Cluse, who used to work with Abraham Lincoln 
at that time, says he was the roughest-looking young man he 
ever saw. He was tall, and angular, and ungainly. He was 
very badly dressed ; his trousers, which were made of flax 
and tow, were cut tight at the ankle, and were out at both 
knees. He split rails to get some better clothing, entering 
into a contract with Mrs. Nancy Miller " to split four 
hundred rails for every yard of brown jeans, dyed with 
white walnut bark, that would be necessary to make him a 
pair of trousers." He was not afraid of work, and often 
walked six or seven miles to get it. 

His father and stepmother, and his half-brothers and 
sisters, had again removed from the Sangamon to Coles 
County, for they had all suffered from ague and fever. 
But although Abraham did not go with them, he always 
kept up a very loving connection with his family, showing 
many kindnesses to his father, who lived to complete his 
seventy-third year, and to see his son one of the most 
honoured men in the land. 

The winter, which plunged the family into all the dis- 
comforts of ague, was a very severe one ; and as soon as the 
snow was melted Abraham was asked to join John D. 
Johnson, his stepmother's son, and John Hanks, a relative 
of his own mother, in another trip to New Orleans, for Mr. 
Dentun Offutt, a trader. V/hen they joined Oil'utt they 
found that he had not been able to buy a boat as he 
expected, and although they were disappointed, they were 
unwilling to give up in despair, and so they decided to build 
a boat first. Every plank of their boat was sawed by hand 
with a ship saw ; and for building it the men received 



HIS OWN BUSINESS. 29 

twelve dollars a-month each. It was launched and taken 
to a spot where a drove of hogs were to be taken on board. 
Some of these were wild and difficult to manage. They 
were securely penned, but they could not be made to move 
towards the boat. They tried every plan they could think 
of to get them on board in vain, and at last Abraham 
Lincoln took them one by one into his long arms and carried 
them on board ! 

The expedition proved a very successful one ; and when it 
was ended Offutt was so impressed with the honesty and 
capacity of Abraham Lincoln, that he invited him to become 
a clerk in his pioneer store, and take the management of it 
and a mill. This he did, and though he had not the graces 
and accomplishments of some modern young men, he speedily 
became a favourite, and was trusted and esteemed by all who 
knew him. The year that he spent in Mr. Offutt's store 
was of great service to him ; and several characteristic tales 
are told of him having reference to this time. 

On one occasion he sold some goods to a woman for 
which he charged her two dollars and six cents, which she 
accordingly paid him. After she had left he reckoned up 
the items again and found that he had charged her six cents 
too much. He knew he would not sleep with that on his 
mind ; so when he had closed the store for the night he 
walked two or three miles to the house of the customer, and 
there handed back her change. 

At another time, wV». it was nearly dark, a woman came 
in as the store was being closed, and asking for half-a-pound 
of tea. Lincoln weighed the tea and took the money • but 
the next morning as soon as he opened the shop he found 
that he had made a mistake the night before, and put a 
four-ounce instead of a half-pound weight on the scale. So 
he at once started, and without waiting for his breakfast 
took the woman the quarter of a pound of tea that belonged 
to her. 



30 NEW WORLD HEROES. 

Abraham had some fighting to do while he was in Olfutt'a 
store. He was once serving some ladies, when a rough 
looking, rough-mannered fellow came in and began talking 
in very coarse and insulting language. Lincoln said quietly, 
" Don't you see there are ladies here 1 If you have anything 
of this kind to say to me, cannot you wait until they 
have gone?" "No," said the man, in a loud voice, "this 
is my time, and I shall say what I please." "You had 
better not," answered the store-clerk. 

"You come on," said the man, threateningly ; "I will 
fight any man who presumes to tell me what I shall say." 

" Very well," said Lincoln. " Wait a minute ; if you 
must be whipped I suppose I may as well whip you as any 
other man." 

As soon as the ladies had left, Lincoln went out and 
punished the bully as he deserved. He threw him on the 
ground, and held him there while he rubbed his face with 
some " smart-weed " that grew near, until the man bellowed 
for mercy. Then Lincoln washed his face, and did what 
he could to alleviate the pain. He not only cured the man 
of his folly, but turned him into a friend. 

There were living in the neighbourhood of OfFutt's store 
at this time a number of roystering young men known as 
" The Clary Grove Boys." They called themselves " Regu- 
lators," and beat into submission those who refused to obey 
their rule. They were all very strong, very swift runners, 
and very unscrupulous. They made every new-comer try 
his skill with one of their number, and either fight, or 
wrestle, or run a race. They selected Jack Armstrong, 
their champion, to oppose Abraham Lincoln, who was 
nothing loth to try his strength. But it soon became 
evident that Abe was more than a match for their favourite ; 
and then, rather than allow their side to lose, they all set on 
the young man, struck and disabled him, and then 
Armstrong, by " legging " his opponent, managed to get him 



IT IS OWN BUSINESS. 31 

on his back. They quite expected that this would make 
Lincoln angry, in which case they would have beaten him 
severely ; but Abe took the whole thing as a joke, and 
getting up from the ground with a smile of good-humour 
on his face, proved that he was as much master of his 
temper as of his right arm. 

This so delighted the " boys " that they wished to make 
him one of their number, but he declined. His heart was 
set upon other and higher things. He read all the books 
he could get, and became especially anxious to be acquainted 
with the rudiments of grammar. Some one told him that a 
man who lived eight miles from New Salem had a copy of 
Kirkham's Grammar ; so Lincoln walked the eight miles 
and borrowed it. He found it an excellent text book, and 
he had plenty of time to study it, for just then Offut's 
store was closed, and Lincoln was for the time out of em- 
ployment. He used to take the book to the top of a hill 
outside of the village, and lie there studying with all his 
might until he had mastered it. 

"If this is what is called science," he remarked to a 
friend, " I think I could subdue another." 

About this time he joined some debating clubs, often 
walking seven or eight miles to attend a meeting. He 
called it "practising polemics." 

John Hanks told a story (reproduced in Mudge's book) 
of how at this time he was one day at Decatur, when 
a political meeting was being addressed out of doors by 
a grey-headed man on the subject of the legislature of 
V and alia. Lincoln and Hanks stopped to listen. 

" Abe, you can beat that," said John ; but Lincoln shook 
his head. Next a genteel young man spoke, and Hanks 
whispered, " Abe, I know you can beat that ; " but the reply 
was " Oh, no, John, I guess not." 

But Hanks excited some interest on Abraham's behalf, 
and presently there was a call for " Abraham Lincoln." 



32 NEW WORLD HEROES. 

Abraham was without shoes or stockings, and the roads 
were muddy. He had coarse trousers, and his jacket was 
not too tidy ; but just as he was he ascended a salt-box 
which served for a platform, and began to speak as if he 
were master of the subject in hand. The people listened 
with pleasure and astonishment. 

" Young man, where did you learn all that ? " demanded 
one. 

" In my father's log-cabin," was the reply. 

Lincoln lost no time in increasing his store of knowledge. 
He used to lie on a trundle bed, and rock the cradle in which 
his landlady's baby reposed, and read, and study, and think 
with all his power. He was willing to turn his hands and 
his head to any good work ; and we give two little bits 
of his speeches, that it may be seen what were his ideas 
in regard to work, though they were not uttered until a 
later period of his history : — 

" My understanding of the hired labourer is this : A young 
man finds himself of an age to be dismissed from parental 
control; he has for his capital nothing save two strong 
hands that God has given him, a heart willing to labour, 
and a freedom to choose the mode of his work and the 
manner of his employer ; he has no soil nor shop, and he 
avails himself of the opportunity of hiring himself to some 
man who has capital to pay him a fair day's wage for a 
fair day's work. He is benefited by availing himself of 
that privilege ; he works industriously, he behaves soberly, 
and the result of a year or two's labour is a surplus of 
capital. Now he buys land on his own hook, he settles, 
marries, begets sons and daughters, and in course of time 
he, too, has enough capital to hire some new beginners. 

"Our government was not established that one man 
might do with himself what he pleased, and with another 
man too. ... I say, whereas God Almighty has given 
every man one mouth to be fed, and one pair of hands 



HIS OWN BUSINESS. 33 

adapted to furnish food for that mouth, if anything can be 
proved to be the will of heaven it is proved by this fact — 
that that mouth is to be fed by those hands, without being 
interfered with by any other man, who has also his mouth 
to feed and his hands to labour with. I hold that if the 
Almighty had ever made a set of men that should do all 
the eating and none of the work, He would have made 
them with mouths only and no hands ; and if He had ever 
made another class that he intended should do all the work 
and none of the eating, He would have made them without 
mouths and with all hands." 

Abraham Lincoln was known to be an honest workman, 
and he was employed by those whose trust he had secured ; 
but he was at this time miserably poor, and looking out for 
some means of subsistence. But he had faith in God ; and 
was beginning to feel that the life which was before him 
would be a grander thing than he had dreamed in his boy- 
hood. He still lacked confidence in himself, but he was 
biding his time, and waiting for opportunities which were 
certain to come. 




13 3 




CHAPTER V. 



LAWYER LINCOLN. 



It was a link from youth to age — 
A harbinger of good presage, 
With youth, and age, and heaven allied, 
With liberty on virtue's side." 



— Blanchard. 




N the spring of 1832 Black Hawk, a celebrated 
Indian chief, came down the Mississippi, and 
declared his intention of ascending the Rock 
River to the territory of the Winnebagoes. As this 
was in direct opposition to the terms of the treaty, 
which confined him to the western bank of the Mississippi, 
Governor Reynolds called for volunteers to light him. 
Abraham Lincoln was the first to enlist, and he was soon 
followed by other men from New Salem and Clary's Grove. 
A meeting was held at Richland for the election of officers. 
The Clary Grove Boys told Lincoln that he must be their 
captain, which, however, he felt was too great an honour. 
He was compelled, however, to become one of the candidates, 
and the other was a Mr. Kirkpatrick, one of Lincoln's 
former employers. The election was conducted in a very 



LA WYER LINCOLN. 35 

simple fashion. The two candidates were told to stand 
apart, and the men were to range themselves beside the 
man of their choice. Three out of every four went at once 
to Lincoln, who felt much gratified at that which proved 
him to have gained the good- will of so many who knew 
him. 

Captain Lincoln's company and others were ordered to 
rendezvous at Beardstown, and here he met for the first 
time the Hon. John T. Stewart, a lawyer and a gentleman. 
General Samuel Whiteside was in command, and the men 
had some severe marching, but the Black Hawk war was 
remarkable for nothing. 

Mr. Lincoln spoke of it afterwards in the following 
humorous terms, when the friends of General Cass were 
endeavouring to prove him a hero : — " By the way, Mr. 
Speaker, did you know I am a military hero 1 Yes, sir, in 
the days of the Black Hawk war I fought, bled, and camo 
away. Speaking of General Cass's career reminds me of 
my own. I was not at Stillman's defeat, but I was about 
as near it as Cass to Hull's surrender. It is quite certain I 
did not break my sword, for I had none to break. If Cass 
broke his sword, the idea is he broke it in desperation. I 
bent my musket by accident. If General Cass went in 
advance of me in picking whortleberries, I guess I surpassed 
him in charges upon the wild onions. If he saw any live 
fighting Indians, it is more than I did ; but I had a good 
many bloody struggles with the mosquitoes, and though I 
never fainted from loss of blood, I can truly say I was often 
very hungry. Mr. Speaker, if I should ever conclude to 
doff whatever our Democratic friends may suppose there is 
of black-cockade Federation about me, and thereupon they 
should take me up as a candidate for the Presidency, I 
protest they shall not make fun of me, as they have of 
General Cass, by attempting to write me into a military 
hero. w 



36 NEW WORLD HEROES. 

His military campaign, if it did nothing else for Abraham 
Lincoln, must have given him a great increase of self-confi- 
dence, for on his return he became a candidate for repre- 
sentative in the State Legislature, an election being near. 
He was then twenty-three, and comparatively unknown. 
Party feeling ran very high between the friends of General 
Jackson and Henry Clay. Lincoln was for the latter. He 
was not elected ; but such was his popularity in his own 
neighbourhood that two hundred and seventy-seven out of 
the two hundred and eighty -four votes taken in the precincts 
were given to him. 

His defeat in no wise discouraged him. He turned his 
attention to business. He became a partner in a store ; but 
he was less successful than he had been in his political 
essay. Holland, in his admirable Life of Lincoln, says : — 
" About this time Mr. Lincoln was appointed postmaster by 
President Jackson. The office was too insignificant to be 
considered politically ; and it was given to the young man 
because everybody liked him, and because he was the only 
man willing to take it who could make out the returns. He 
was exceedingly pleased with the appointment, because it 
gave him a chance to read every newspaper that was taken 
in the vicinity. He had never been able to get half the 
newspapers he wanted before, and the office gave him the 
prospect of a constant feast. Not wishing to be tied to the 
office, as it gave him no revenue that would reward him for 
the confinement, he made a post-office of his hat. Whenever 
he went out the letters were placed in his hat. When an 
anxious looker for a letter found the postmaster he found 
his office ; and the public officer, taking off his hat, looked 
over his mail wherever the public might find him. He 
kept the office until it was discontinued, or removed to 
Petersburgh." 

An interesting story is told in connection with this. 
Some years afterwards he was suddenly called upon to 



LA WYER LINCOLN. 37 

settle his account with the Post-Office Department. Seeing 
a look of perplexity upon his face, a friend said — " Lincoln, 
if you are in want of money, let us help you." But he went 
to a little old trunk hidden away under some books, opened 
it, and took out a little parcel of coin, counting the seven- 
teen dollars, which was the exact sum required. Hardly 
pressed by poverty as he was, he had not used the money 
that did not belong to him, but had carefully kept it until 
it should be asked for. 

About this time, hearing that there was a chance of work 
as an assistant surveyor, he began the study, and procured 
a compass. At first he was too poor to buy a chain, and so 
he used a grape-vine. Sometime afterward, having become 
a surety for a debt, his compass and chain were sold, but 
subsequently returned to him. 

Lincoln had some good friends — Mr. Greene, Major 
Stewart, and others. The latter strongly advised him to 
study the law, and nothing loth, he at once set about it. 
He bought a copy of Blackstone at a book auction in Spring- 
field, and the major lent him others. He was once asked 
by the Rev. J. P. Gulliver — "Did you not have a law 
education 1 How did you prepare for your profession ? " 

He replied — " Oh, yes ; I ' read law ' — as the phrase is ; 
that is, I became a lawyer's clerk in Springfield, and copied 
tedious documents, and picked up what I could of law in 
the intervals of other work. But your question reminds me 
of a bit of education I had, which I am bound in honesty to 
mention. In the course of my law-reading I constantly 
came upon the word demonstrate. I thought at first that I 
understood its meaning, but soon became satisfied that I 
did not. I said to myself — What do I do when I demon- 
strate more than when I reason or prove? How does 
demonstration differ from any other proof? I consulted 
Webster's Dictionary. That told of 'certain proof — 'proof 
beyond the possibility of doubt ; ' but I could form no idea 



38 NEW WORLD HEROES. 

what sort of proof that was. I thought a great many things 
were proved beyond a possibility of doubt without recourse 
to any such extraordinary process of reasoning as I under- 
stood ' demonstrate ' to be. I consulted all the dictionaries 
and books of reference I could find, but with no better results. 
You might as well have defined blue to a blind man. At 
last I said, ' Lincoln, you can never make a lawyer if you do 
not understand what demonstrate means ; ' and I left my 
situation in Springfield, went home to my father's house, 
and stayed there till I could give any propositions in the 
six books of Euclid at sight. I then found out -what * de- 
monstrate ' meant, and went back to my law-studies." 

Dr. Brockett says — " He was compelled to prosecute his 
studies somewhat at a disadvantage, both from the necessity 
of supporting himself meanwhile by his own labour, and the 
time and attention which his position obliged him to give to 
politics. But nothing could prevent the consummation of 
his purpose ; and having completed the preliminary studies, 
he was admitted to practice in 1836. He was what is 
called in the West f a rising man,' and he commenced 
practice with a reputation which speedily brought him 
plenty of business, and placed him in the front rank of his 
profession. He displayed remarkable ability as an advocate 
in jury trials, and a ready perception and sound judgment 
of the turning legal points of a case. Many of his law 
arguments were masterpieces of logical reasoning. His 
forensic efforts all bore the stamp of masculine common 
sense, and he had a natural, easy mode of illustration that 
made the most abstruse subjects appear plain. Indeed, 
clear, practical sense, and skill in homely or humorous 
illustration, were the especially noticeable traits in his 
arguments. The graces of a polished rhetoric he certainly 
had not, nor did he aim to acquire them. His style of 
expression and the cast of his thought were his own, 
having all the native force of a genuine originality." 



LAWYER LINCOLN. 39 

Dr. Brockott mentions, as several of Lincoln's bio- 
graphers do, an incident told by one who wrote from 
personal knowledge. It was in connection with a son of 
the man named Armstrong, the champion of the Clary 
Grove Boys, who had proved himself a kind friend to 
Lincoln, and who was now dead. This young man was 
accused of murder. The public mind was in a state oi 
great excitement, and the mob would have slain young 
Armstrong without a trial if he had not been kept securely 
in prison At the preliminary examination the accuser 
swore so positively that it seemed there could be no hope 
for the young man, who abandoned himself to despair. 
" At this juncture," says the narrator, " the widow received 
a letter from Mr. Lincoln, volunteering his services in an 
effort to save the youth from the impending stroke. Gladly 
was his aid accepted, although it seemed impossible for 
even his sagacity to prevail in such a desperate case ; but 
the heart of the attorney was in his work, and he set about 
it with a will that knew no such word as fail. Feeling 
that the poisoned condition of the public mind was such as 
to preclude the possibility of impannelling an impartial jury 
in the court having jurisdiction, he procured a change of 
venue and the postponement of the trial. He then went 
studiously to work, unravelling the history of the case, and 
satisfied himself that his client was the victim of malice, 
and that the statements of the accuser were a tissue of 
falsehoods. 

"When the trial was called on, the prisoner, pale and 
emaciated, with hopelessness written on very feature, and 
accompanied by his half-hoping, half-despairing mother — 
whose only hope was in a mother's belief in a son's 
innocence — in the justice of the God she worshipped, and 
m the noble counsel who, without hope of fee or reward 
upon earth, had undertaken the cause — took his seat in the 
prisoner's box, and with a 'stony firmness' listened to the 



40 NEW WORLD HEROES. 

reading of the indictment. Lincoln sat quietly by, whilst 
the large auditory looked on him as though wondering 
what he could say in defence of one whose guilt they 
regarded as certain. The examination of the witnesses for 
the State was begun, and a well-arranged mass of evidence, 
circumstantial and positive, was introduced, which seemed 
to impale the prisoner beyond the possibility of extrication. 
The counsel for the defence propounded but few questions, 
and those of a character which excited no uneasiness on the 
part of the prosecutor — merely in most cases requiring the 
main witnesses to be definite as to time and place. When the 
evidence of the prosecution was ended, Lincoln introduced 
a few witnesses to remove some erroneous impressions in 
regard to the previous character of his client, who, though 
somewhat rowdyish, had never been known to commit a 
vicious act ; and to show that a greater degree of ill-feeling 
existed between the accuser and the accused than between 
the accuser and the deceased. 

" The prosecutor felt that his case was a clear one, and 
his opening speech was brief and formal. Lincoln arose, 
while a deathly silence pervaded the vast audience, and, in a 
clear and moderate tone, began his argument. Slowly and 
carefully he reviewed the testimony, pointing out the 
hitherto unobserved discrepancies in the statements of the 
principal witness. That which had seemed plain and 
plausible he made to appear crooked as a serpent's path. 
The witness had stated that the affair took place at a 
certain hour in the evening, and that by the aid of the 
brightly shining moon he saw the prisoner inflict the death- 
blow with a sling-shot. Mr. Lincoln showed that at the 
hour referred to the moon had not yet appeared above the 
horizon, and consequently the whole tale was a fabrication. 

" An almost instantaneous change seemed to have been 
wrought in the minds of his auditors, and a verdict of Not 
Guilty was at the end of every tongue. But the orator was 



LA WYER LINCOLN. 4 1 

not content with this intellectual achievement, his whole 
being had for months been bound up in this work «. 
gratitude and mercy, and as the lava of the overcharged 
crater bursts from its imprisonment, so great thoughts and 
burning words leaped forth from the soul of the eloquent 
Lincoln. He drew a picture of the perjurer so horrid and 
ghastly that the accuser could sit under it no longer, hut 
reeled and staggered from the court-room, whilst the 
audience fancied they could see the brand upon his br w. 
Then in words of thrilling pathos Lincoln appealed to the 
jurors as fathers of some who might become fatherless, and 
as husbands of wives who might be widowed, to yield to no 
previous impressions, no ill-founded prejudice, but to do 
his client justice ; and as he alluded to the debt of gratitude 
which he owed the boy's sire, tears were seen to fall from 
many eyes unused to weep. 

" It was near night when he concluded by saying that if 
justice was done — as he believed it would be — before the 
sun should set, it would shine upon his client a free man. 
The jury retired, and the court adjourned for the day. 
Half-an-hour had not elapsed, when, as the officers of the 
court and the volunteer attorney sat at the tea-table of 
their hotel, a messenger announced that the jury had re- 
turned to their seats. All repaired immediately to the 
court-house, and while the prisoner was being brought from 
the jail, the court-room was filled to overflowing with 
citizens from the town. When the prisoner and his mother 
entered, silence reigned as though the house were empty. 
The foreman of the jury, in answer to the usual inquiry 
from the court, delivered the verdict of Not Guilty. The 
widow dropped into the arms of her son, who lifted her up, 
and told her to look upon him as before, free and innocent. 
Then, with the words, ' Where is Mr. Lincoln 1 ' he rushed 
across the room and grasped the hand of his deliverer, 
whilst his heart was too full for utterance. Lincoln turned 



42 NEW WORLD HEROES. 

his eyes towards the west, where the sun still lingered in 
view, and then, turning to the youth, said, ' It is not yet 
sundown, and you are free.' 1 confess," adds the narrator, 
"that my cheeks were not wholly unwet by tears, and I 
turned from the affecting scene. As I cast a glance behind, 
I saw Abraham Lincoln obeying the divine injunction by 
comforting the widow and fatherless." 

There are other stories told of him which prove him to 
have been both kindly and just. He was employed by 
a Mr. Cogdal, who had been unfortunate in business, to 
manage the winding-up of his affairs. Mr. Cogdal gave him 
a note promising to pay. Sometime after the man met with 
an accident, and lost the use of his arm through an explosion 
of gunpowder. Mr. Lincoln met him one day and inquired 
kindly how he was. " I am getting along poor enough,' 1 
was the reply, " and I have been thinking about that note." 
Mr. Lincoln put the note at once into Cogdal's hand. 
" There, think no more about it," he said, and went 
quickly away so as to give the man no time to express his 
thanks. 

A poor woman once came to Mr. Lincoln's office in great 
trouble. " My husband was a revolutionary soldier," she 
said, " and I have had to employ a pension-agent to get my 
claim to a pension settled by the government." 

" Has he done it ? " 

" Yes, but he has made me pay him two hundred dollars 
for his services. It is all the money I have. It has ruined 
me. I have not even enough to pay my fare home." 

" His charge was wicked and exorbitant," said Lincoln. 
" I will make him pay some of it back to you." 

He gave that poor widow the money to pay her fare 
Lome, and commenced a suit against the dishonest agent, 
which was successful. Mr. Lincoln stood by at the end of 
the suit, and watched, with great glee, while a hundred 
dollars were returned to the widow. 



LA WYER LINCOLN. 43 

There were two classes of persons with whom, as will be 
readily imagined, he had great sympathy, and for whom his 
services were always available — the negroes, and their 
friends who had helped them to escape. It made a lawyer 
very unpopular to undertake the defence of the latter, but 
Lincoln was never afraid to risk his reputation and lose his 
money by helping the cause of the workers on " the under- 
ground railroad," as the system was called which sheltered 
slaves who were trying to escape. 

Mr. Mudge tells the following story of a negro mother 
who came to Abraham Lincoln in her trouble : — " She and 
her family were brought by her master from Kentucky into 
Illinois, and set free. Her oldest son, upon whom she was 
dependent, had gone down the Mississippi on a steamboat as 
a waiter. On his arrival at New Orleans, he unwisely went 
ashore, and was arrested and thrown into prison, for no 
reason, except that he was a free negro, from a non-slave- 
holding State. This outrage was further aggravated by a 
threatened sale into slavery to pay his jail expenses. The 
feelings of Mr. Lincoln were aroused. He went at once to 
the Governor to inquire if he could render any official aid to 
the young man. The Governor replied that he was sorry 
to say he could do nothing. The powerful passions of Mr. 
Lincoln lost their usual restraint, and found expression in 
lancuaire he seldom used. He declared he would have the 
negro back or have a twenty years' agitation in Illinois ; the 
people should be stirred up until the Governor was invested 
with constitutional authority in such matters. But it wa3 
well for the young coloured man that he was not compelled 
to wait the result of a twenty years' agitation. Upon a 
sober second thought Mr. Lincoln and his partner made up 
a purse, and sent it to a New Orleans correspondent, who 
procured the negro's release, and returned him to hia 
mother." 



CHAPTER VT. 

A HUSBAND AND A FATHER. 

•' Then earth takes on a livelier hue, 
And heaven distils her pearly dew ; 
And life and beauty crown the heath 
"With genial summer's emerald wreath. 




VEN before Abraham Lincoln had gained his repu- 
tation as a lawyer, he had again tried to obtain a 
seat in the Legislature, and this time had 
succeeded. This was in 1834. A writer says of him — "He 
had not yet acquired position. At this time he was very plain 
in his costume, as well as rather uncourtly in his dress and 
appearance. His clothing was of homely Kentucky jean, 
and the first impression made upon those who saw him was 
not specially prepossessing. He had not outgrown his hard 
backwood experience, and showed no inclination to disguise 
or to cast behind him the honest and manly, though un- 
polished characteristics of his early days. Never was a man 
further removed from all snobbish affectation. As little was 
there, also, of the demagogue art of assuming an uncouthness 
or rusticity of manner and outward habit, with a mistaken 
motive of thus securing particular favour as one of the 



A HUSBAND AND A FATHER. 45 

masses. He chose to appear then, as he has at all times 
since, precisely what he was. His deportment was unassum- 
ing, though without any awkwardness or reserve. During 
this, his first session in the Legislature, he was taking lessons, 
as became his youth and inexperience, and preparing himself 
for the future by close observation and attention to business, 
rather than by a prominent participation in debate. He 
seldom or never took the floor to speak, although before the 
close of this and the succeeding special session of the same 
Legislature, he had shown, as previously in any other capa- 
city in which he was engaged, qualities that clearly pointed 
to him as fitted to act a leading part." 

In 1836 he was again a candidate for the Legislature, and 
was re-elected. The election was a very exciting one, and 
he both wrote to the papers and gave addresses. His first 
remarkable speech - was made on behalf of a friend on this 
occasion. Holland thus describes it : — " Lincoln took his 
turn upon the platform. Embarrassed at first, and speaking 
slowly, he began to lay down and fix his propositions. His 
auditors followed him with breathless attention, and saw him 
enclose his adversary in a wall of fact, and then weave over 
him a network of deductions, so logically tight in all its 
meshes that there was no escape for the victim. He forgot 
himself entirely as he grew warm at his work. His audience 
applauded ; and with ridicule and wit he riddled the man 
whom he had made helpless. Men who remember the 
speech allude particularly to the transformation which it 
wrought in Mr. Lincoln's appearance. The homely man 
was majestic; the plain, good-natured face was full of 
expression; the long, bent figure was straight as an arrow; 
and the kind and dreamy eyes flashed with the fire of true 
inspiration. His reputation was made, and from that day 
to the day of his death he was recognised in Illinois as one 
of the most powerful orators in the State." " The Sangamon 
County Delegation," which consisted of nine representatives, 



46 NEW WORLD HERGES. 

was remarkable for the height of its members. Mr. Lincoln 
was the tallest, but not a man of them was less than six feet 
high. They used to be called " the Long Nine." Lincoln 
had the second place on the Committee on Public Accounts 
and Expenditure. He was thrown into contact with some 
of the best and most able men of this new State. They 
were chiefly occupied with measures for public improve- 
ments. Mr. Lincoln, during this session, became acquainted 
with Stephen A. Douglass, who was characterised by 
Lincoln as "the least man he ever saw." He was both 
slight and short. They worked together in this session, 
which saw Mr. Lincoln take, for the first time, his stand on 
the Anti-Slavery side. He was careful, however, to avoid 
identifying himself with the theoretical Abolitionists of 
the day, and declared that he thought them illegal ; but he 
announced his belief that " the institution of slavery was 
founded on both injustice and bad policy." 

He was still very poor. He had walked to Vandalia, 
where the House met, which was a hundred miles from his 
home, and when the session was over he walked home again. 
He was the only one of the " Long Nine " who did not 
possess a horse ; and, of course, at that time there were no 
railways. He was very thinly clad ; and when he com- 
plained of the cold, one of his companions remarked, looking 
down at the large feet of the future President, " It is no 
wonder you are cold, Abe, there is so much of you on the 
ground." 

In 1838 he was elected for the third, and in 1840 for the 
fourth time to a seat in the Legislature ; and in 1840 Mr. 
Lincoln engaged to fight a duel. 

The quarrel was originally none of his, but he made it so. 
It arose out of the publication of a sarcastic poem in the 
Sangamon Journal, which was understood to refer to Mr. 
James Shields. He called on the editor, and demanded the 
name of the writer. This the editor refused to give, as the 



A HUSBAND AND A FATHER. 17 

writer was a lady. But the lady was a friend of Lincoln's, 
ar.d he told Shields that he held himself responsible for 
the poem. So a duel was decided upon, which was to take 
place in a neutral territory on the Mississippi, called Bloody 
Island. But no blood was shed there on that occasion. A 
reconciliation was effected, and the duel was happily 
prevented. 

In 1842, and when he was thirty-three years old, Mr. 
Lincoln was married to Miss Mary Todd, daughter of the 
Hon. Robert S. Todd of Kentucky. He wrote to a friend, 
J. F. Speed, Esq., just after : — " We are not keeping house, 
but boarding at the Globe Tavern, which is very well kept 
now by a widow lady of the name of Beck. Our rooms are 
the same Dr. Wallace occupied there, and boarding only 
costs four dollars a-week. ... I most heartily wish you 
and your family will not fail to come. Just let us know the 
time a week in advance, and we will have a room prepared 
for you, and we will all be merry together for a while." 

After his marriage Mr. Lincoln remained several years in 
private life, practising law with considerable success. He 
was too conscientious a man, however, to try to shield those 
whom he knew to be guilty from the punishment which 
they deserved. 

Mr. Lincoln became the father of four children, all sons — 
Robert Todd, Edward, who died in infancy, William, who 
died in Washington during the presidency of his father, and 
Thomas, nicknamed by his father " Tadpole," and generally 
called Tad. Their home was in a pleasant house at Spring- 
held, very different from the log-cabin in which their father 
was born. He was a very loving parent, never impatient 
with the restlessness of the children, but always kind, 
tender, and indulgent. He used to be seen wheeling them 
about in a child's gig, up and down the path in front of the 
house, often without hat or coat on, with his hands behind, 
holding the little carriage, and his thoughts evidently far 



48 NEW WORLD HEROES. 

away. He was very absent-minded : some people used to 
say he was crazy, he seemed to be so full of thought ; but 
all the while he was preparing for his future work and 
responsibility. His wife was a good woman, of the Presby- 
terian Church, and Mr. Lincoln, though not a member, 
attended with her. The Sunday-school and all benevolent 
institutions found in him a good friend and helper. But he 
was especially the friend and teacher of his own children. 
He used to say to them when they exhibited any unlovely 
tendencies in temper and disposition, " You break my heart 
when you act like this." 

In the meantime great events were occurring, and 
Abraham Lincoln was known to be a man who would 
serve his party well. There was a growing feeling against 
slavery, and he had taken a very decided stand on the side 
of its enemies. Soon after his marriage he was expecting a 
nomination to Congress ; but the convention of his county 
sent him as a delegate to nominate another man. He 
referred to this in his own playful manner — "In getting 
Bake* the nomination, I shall be fixed a good deal like a 
fellow that is made groomsman to the man who has cut 
him out, and is marrying his own dear gal." But he 
behaved loyally to his rival, and supported him with 
sincerity and zeal. And Lincoln bided his time. 

In 1854 a new political era opened. Holland, in his Life 
of Lincoln, thus describes the crisis : — " Events occurred ol 
immeasurable influence upon the country ; and an agitation 
of the slavery question was begun, which was destined not 
to cease until slavery itself should be destroyed. Disregard- 
ing the pledges of peace and harmony, the party in the 
interest of slavery effected in Congress the abrogation of the 
Missouri Compromise of 1820 — a compromise which was 
kxtended to shut slavery for ever out of the north-west ; and 
a bill organising the territories of Kansas and Nebraska 
was enacted, which left them free to choose whether they 



A HUSBAND AND A FATHER. 49 

would have slavery as an institution or not. The inten- 
tion, without doubt, was to force slavery upon those 
territories — to make it impossible for them ever to 
become free States — as the subsequent exhibitions of 
" border ruffianism " in Kansas sufficiently testified. This 
great political iniquity aroused Mr. Lincoln as he had 
never before been aroused. It was at this time that 
he fully comprehended the fact that there was to be 
no peace on the slavery question until either freedom or 
slavery should triumph. He knew slavery to be wrong. 
He had always known and felt it to be so. He knew that 
he regarded the institution as the Fathers of the Republic 
had regarded it ; but a new doctrine had been put forward. 
Slavery was right. Slavery was entitled to equal consider- 
ation with freedom. Slavery claimed the privilege of going 
wherever, into the national domain, it might choose to go. 
Slavery claimed national protection everywhere. Instead 
of remaining contentedly within the territory it occupied 
under the protection of the Constitution, it sought to extend 
itself indefinitely — to nationalise itself. 

"Judge Douglas, of Illinois, was the responsible author 
of what was called the Kansas-Nebraska bill — a bill which 
he based upon what he was pleased to denominate 'popular 
sovereignty ' — the right of a people of a territory to choose 
their own institutions : and between Judge Douglas and 
Mr. Lincoln was destined to be fought c the battle of the 
giants ' on the questions that grew out of this great political 
crime. Mr. Lincoln's indignation was an index to the 
popular feeling all over the North. The men who, in good 
faith, had acquiesced in the compromise measures, though 
with great reluctance, and only for the sake of peace — who 
had compelled themselves to silence by biting their lips — 
who had been forced into silence by their love of the Union, 
whose existence the slave power had threatened — saw that 
they had been overreached and foully wronged." 

b 4 



50 NEW WORLD HEROES. 

It was on the occasion of a visit which Mr. Douglas pnid 
to Springfield that the two men first measured swords in 
the great war of words which followed. The State Fair was 
being held at that time, and it had brought together a large 
number of representative men from all parts of the state. 
Mr. Douglas had been before the public all the time which 
Lincoln had spent in retirement, and he expounded his 
principles and policy with the bearing of a man who was all 
assurance and self-confidence ; and the next day in answer 
to his speech Lincoln put forth all his powers. The Spring- 
field Journal thus described the speaker and the scene : — 

"He quivered with feeling and emotion. The whole 
house wa3 as still as death. He attacked the Kansas- 
Nebraska bill with unusual warmth and energy, and all 
felt that a man of strength was its enemy, and that he in- 
tended to blast it if he could by strong and manly efforts. He 
was most successful ; and the house approved the glorious 
triumph of truth by loud and long continued huzzas. Women 
waved their white handkerchiefs in token of woman's silent 
but heartfelt consent. . . . Mr. Lincoln exhibited Douglas 
in all the attitudes he could be placed in in a friendly 
debate. He exhibited the bill in all its aspects, to show its 
humbuggery and falsehoods, and when thus torn to rags, 
cut into slips, held up to the gaze of the vast crowd, a kind 
of scorn was visible upon the face of the crowd, and upon 
the lips of the most eloquent speaker." The editor in con- 
cluding his account says — "At the conclusion of the speech, 
every man felt that it was unanswerable — that no human 
power could overthrow it, or trample it under foot. The 
long and repeated applause evinced the feeling of the crowd, 
and gave tokens of universal assent to Lincoln's whole 
argument ; and every mind present did homage to the man 
■who took captive the heart, and broke like a sun over the 
understanding." 

The fight thus commenced was a lon^ one. Mr. Lincoln 



A II US BAND AND A FATHER. 51 

during the campaign thus expressed his ideas in regard to 
the Declaration of Independence : — " These communities, 
the thirteen colonies, by their representatives in the old 
Independence Hall, said to the world of men, 'We hold 
these truths to be self-evident, that all men are born equal ; 
that they are endowed by their Creator with inalienable 
rights ; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit 
of happiness.' This was their interpretation of the economy 
of the universe. This was their lofty, and wise, and noble 
understanding of the justice of the Creator to His creatures. 
Yes, gentlemen, to all His creatures, to the whole great 
family of man. In their enlightened belief, nothing stamped 
with the divine image and likeness was sent into the world 
to be trodden on, and degraded, and embruted by its 
fellows. They grasped not only the race of men then 
living, but they reached forward and seized upon the 
furthest posterity. They created a beacon to guide their 
children, and their children's children, and the countless 
myriads who should inhabit the earth in other ages. Wise 
statesmen as they were, they knew the tendency of pros- 
perity to breed tyrants, and so they established these great 
self-evident truths that when, in the distant future, some 
man, some faction, some interest should set up the doctrine 
that none but rich men, or none but white men, or none 
but Anglo-Saxon white men, were entitled to life, liberty, 
and the pursuit of happiness, their posterity might look up 
again to the Declaration of Independence, and take courage 
to renew the battle which their fathers began, so that truth, 
and justice, and mercy, and all the humane and Christian 
virtues, might not be extinguished from the land ; so that no 
man would hereafter dare to limit and circumscribe the great 
principles on which the temple of liberty was being built. 

" Now, my countrymen, if you have been taught doctrines 
conflicting with the great landmarks of the Declaration of 
Independence; if you have listened to suggestions 



52 NEW WORLD HEROES. 

which would take away from its grandeur, and mutilate 
the fair symmetry of its proportions ; if you have been 
inclined to believe that all men are not created equal in 
those inalienable rights enumerated by our chart of liberty, 
let me entreat you to come back — return to the fountain 
whose waters spring close by the blood of the Revolution. 
Think nothing of me, take no thought for the political 
fate of any man whomsoever, but come back to the truths 
that are in the Declaration of Independence. 

"You may do anything with me you choose, if you will but 
heed these sacred principles. You may not only defeat me 
for the Senate, but you may take me and put me to death. 
While pretending no indifference to earthly honours, I do 
claim to be actuated in this contest by something higher 
than an anxiety for office. I charge you to drop every 
paltry and insignificant thought for any man's success. It 
is nothing ; I am nothing ; Judge Douglas is nothing. 
But do not destroy that immortal emblem of humanity — the 
Declaration of American Independence" 

From 1858 Lincoln and Douglas were engaged in a grand 
fight. Debates were held at Ottawa, Freeport, Jones- 
borough, Charleston, Galesburg, Quincy, and Alton, and 
they were said to be unsurpassed in campaign annals for 
eloquence, ability, earnestness, adroitness, and comprehen- 
siveness. The two rivals often travelled together in the 
same car or carriage, and were friendly so far as the 
manifestation of good feeling was concerned, though each 
fought the other with uncompromising vigour. Douglas 
once pronounced this graceful eulogy upon his opponent, at 
Springfield : — " I take great pleasure in bearing my testi- 
mony to the fact that Mr. Lincoln is a kind-hearted, 
amiable, good-natured gentleman, with whom no man has a 
right to pick a quarrel, even if he wanted one. He is 
a worthy gentleman. I have known him for twenty-five 
years ; and there is no better citizen, and no kinder-hearted 



A HUSBAND AND A FATHER. 53 

man. He is a fine lawyer, possesses high ability; and there 
is no objection to him, except the monstrous revolutionary 
doctrines with which he is identified." 

Perhaps the greatest of Lincoln's speeches was made at 
New York, at the Cooper Institute, on the 27th of Feb- 
ruary 1860. William Cullen Bryant presided, and the 
crowded audience received Mr. Lincoln with demonstrations 
of the greatest enthusiasm. He closed with these words : — 
"Neither let us be slandered from our duty by false 
accusations against us, not frightened from it by measures 
of destruction to the government, nor of dangers to our- 
selves. Let us have faith that right makes might, and in 
that faith let us to the end dare to do our duty as we 
understand it." 

He stood now at the close of his old life and the begin- 
ning of the new; and of his appearance at the time a 
writer gives the following pen-portrait : — " Mr. Lincoln 
stands six feet and four inches high in his stockings. His 
frame is not muscular, but gaunt and wiry ; his arms are 
long, but not unreasonably so for a person of his height ; his 
lower limbs are not disproportioned to his body. In walk- 
ing, his gait, though firm, is never brisk. He steps slowly 
and deliberately, almost always with his head inclined 
forward, and his hands clasped behind his back. In 
matters of dress he is by no means precise. Always clean, 
he is never fashionable ; he is careless, but not slovenly. 
In manner he is remarkably cordial, and at the same time 
simple. His politeness is always sincere, but never elabo- 
rate or oppressive. A warm shake of the hand, and 
a warmer smile of recognition, are his methods of greeting 
his friends. At rest, his features, though those of a man 
of mark, are not such as belong to a handsome man ; but 
when his fine dark grey eyes are lighted up by any emotion, 
and his features begin their play, he would be chosen from 
among a crowd as one who had in him not only the kindly 



54 NEW WOULD HEROES. 

sentiments which women love, bat the heavier metal of 
which full-grown men and presidents are made. His hair 
is black, and though thin, is wiry. His head sits well on 
his shoulders, but beyond that it defies description. It 
nearer resembles that of Clay than that of Webster ; but it 
is unlike either. It is very large, and, phrenologically, 
well proportioned, betokening power in all its developments. 
A slightly Roman nose, a wide-cut mouth, and a dark 
complexion, with the appearance of having been weather- 
beaten, complete the description. 

"In his personal habits Mr. Lincoln is as simple as a child. 
He loves a good dinner, and eats with the appetite which 
goes with a good brain ; but his food is plain and nutritious. 
He never drinks intoxicating liquors of any sort, not even a 
glass of wine. He is not addicted to tobacco in any of its 
shapes. He was never accused of a licentious act in all his 
life. He never uses profane language. He never gambles ; 
we doubt if he ever indulges in any game of chance. He is 
particularly cautious about incurring pecuniary obligations 
for any purpose whatever, and in debt he is never content 
until the score is discharged. We presume he owes no man 
a dollar. He never speculates. The rage for the sudden 
acquisition of wealth never took hold of him. His gains 
from his profession have been moderate, but sufficient for 
his purposes. While others have dreamed of gold, he has 
been in pursuit of knowledge. In all his dealings he has 
the reputation of being generous, but exact ; and, above all, 
religiously honest. He would be a bold man who would 
say that Abraham Lincoln ever wronged any one out of a 
cent, or ever spent a dollar that he had not honestly earned. 
His struggles in early life have made him careful of money, 
but his generosity with his own is proverbial. He is a 
regular attendant upon religious worship, and though not a 
communicant, is a pew-holder and liberal supporter of the 
Presbyterian Church in Springfield, to which Mrs. Lincoln 



A HUSBAND AND A FATHER. 



55 



belongs. He is a scrupulous teller of the truth — too exact 
in his notions to suit the atmosphere of Washington as it is 
now. His enemies may say that he tells black Republican 
lies; but no man could ever say that, in a professional 
capacity, or as a citizen dealing with his neighbours, he 
would depart from the Scriptural command. At home he 
lives like a gentleman of modest means and simple tastes. 
A good-sized house of wood, simply but tastefully furnished, 
surrounded by trees and flowers, is his own, and there he 
lives, at peace with himself, the idol of his family, and, for 
his honesty, ability, and patriotism, the admiration of his 
countrymen." 



v-Vt^lfea K, 




CHAPTER VII. 



NOMINATED AND ELECTED TO THE PRESIDENTIAL CHAIR. 



"God cares, and humanity cares, and I care; and with God's help 
I shall not fail." 




WTT% N May 1859, at the Illinois State Republican Con- 
vention, an incident occurred which was amusing. 
Abraham Lincoln attended as a spectator, and his 
entrance was greeted with applause. He had scarcely taken 
his seat, when the Governor of the State arose, and said that 
an old democrat wished to make a presentation to the 
Convention. Leave was granted, and in came Lincoln's 
old friend Hanks, bearing with him two old fence-rails, 
gaily decorated, and bearing this inscription : — 

"ABRAHAM LINCOLN, 

The Rail Candidate for the Presidency in 1860. Two Rails from a lot 

of three thousand made in 1830, by 

THOMAS HANKS AND ABE LINCOLN, 

"Whose father was the first pioneer of Macon County." 

The effect of the introduction of these rails upon an 
audience already excited was to increase enthusiasm, as 



ELECTED PRESIDENT. 57 

such melo-dramatic incidents often do. One would have 
thought that to have been a rail-splitter was the greatest 
and best training for a President, according to the ideas of 
the people. It is said that they cheered and shouted for a 
quarter-of-an-hour, and compelled Mr. Lincoln to tell them 
the story of those rails. He did so ; they were some of the 
rails he had split for his father's log-cabin. He himself 
thought it would have been better if, instead of splitting 
rails, he had been preparing by work in school or college 
for future duties and responsibilities ; but the people loved 
him all the more because he had been one of themselves. 
They raised a cry which was taken up by the toilers in all 
parts of the West ! — " The rail-splitter of Illinois is the 
people's choice for the Presidency." His enemies despised 
him for his lowly youth ; some of his friends regretted that 
the name of " rail-splitter " should be associated with him ; 
but he, never ashamed of the circumstances of his birth, and 
never parading his poor origin, went steadily onward and 
upward in his course. 

Mr. Buchanan, the President of the United States, had 
not seen his way to oppose slavery, and the tenure of his 
office would expire in March 1861. It was time to fix 
upon a President-elect, and on the 18th of May 1860 there 
was a meeting of the Republican National Convention, "in 
an immense building which the people of Chicago had put 
up for the purpose, called the Wigwam. There were four 
hundred and sixty-five delegates. The city was filled," says 
Raymond, "with earnest men who had gathered to press 
the claims of their favourite candidates, and the halls and 
corridors of all the hotels swarmed and buzzed with an eawr 
crowd, in and out of which darted or pushed their way the 
various leaders of party politics." J. H. Holland, in his 
Life of Abraham Lincoln, thus describes the exciting 
scene : — 

"On the assembling of the Convention everybody was 



58 NEW WORLD HEROES. 

anxious to get at the decisive work, and as a preliminary, 
the various candidates in the field were nominated by their 
friends. Mr. Evarts of New York nominated Mr. Seward, 
and Mr. Judd of Illinois named Abraham Lincoln. After- 
wards Mr. Dayton of New Jersey, Mr. Cameron of 
Pennsylvania, Mr. Chase of Ohio, Edward Bates of Mis- 
souri, and John McLean of Ohio, were formally nominated, 
but no enthusiasm was awakened by the mention of any 
names except those of Mr. Seward and Mr. Lincoln. Caleb 
B. Smith of Indiana seconded the nomination of Mr. 
Lincoln, as did also Mr. Belano of Ohio ; while Carl 
Schurz of Wisconsin, and Mr. Blair of Michigan, seconded 
the nomination of Mr. Seward. It was certain that one of 
these two men would be nominated. On every pronuncia- 
tion of their names, their respective partisans raised their 
shouts, vieing with each other in the strength of their 
applause. The excitement of this mass of men at that time 
cannot be measured by those not there, or by men in their 
sober senses. 

" The ballot came. Maine gave nearly half her vote for 
Lincoln ; New Hampshire seven of her ten for Lincoln. 
Massachusetts was divided. New York voted solid for Mr. 
Seward, giving him her seventy votes. Virginia, which was 
expected also to vote solid for Mr. Seward, gave fourteen of 
her twenty-two votes for Lincoln. Indiana gave her 
twenty -six votes for Lincoln without a break. Thus the 
balloting went on, amid the most intense excitement, until 
the whole number of four hundred and sixty-five votes was 
cast. It was necessary to a choice that one candidate 
should have two hundred and thirty-three. William H. 
Seward had one hundred and seventy-three and a half, 
Abraham Lincoln one hundred and two, Edward Bates 
forty-eight, Simon Cameron fifty and a half, Salmon P 
Chase forty-nine. The remaining forty-two votes were 
divided among John McLean, Benjamin Wade, William 



ELECTED PRESIDENT. 59 

L. Dayton, John M. Reed, Jacob Oollamer, Charles 
Sumner, and John C. Fremont — Reed, Sumner, and 
Fremont having one each. 

On the second ballot the first gain for Lincoln was from 
New Hampshire. Then Vermont followed with her vote, 
which she had previously given to her senator, Mr. 
Collamer, as a compliment. Pennsylvania came next to his 
support, with the votes she had given to Cameron. On the 
whole ballot he gained seventy-nine votes, and received one 
hundred and eighty-one, while Mr. Seward received one 
hundred and eighty-four and a half votes, having gained 
eleven. The announcement of the votes given to Mr. 
Seward and Mr. Lincoln was received with deafening 
applause by their respective partisans. Then came the 
third ballot. All felt that it was likely to be the decisive 
one, and the friends of Mr. Seward trembled for the result. 
Hundreds of pencils were in operation, and before the 
result was announced, it was whispered through the 
immense and excited mass of people that Abraham Lincoln 
had received two hundred and thirty-one and a half votes, 
only lacking one vote and a half of an election. Mr. 
Carther of Ohio was up in an instant, to announce the 
change of four votes of Ohio from Mr. Chase to Mr. 
Lincoln. That finished the work. The excitement had 
culminated. After a moment's pause, like the sudden and 
breathless stillness that precedes the hurricane, the storm 
of wild, uncontrollable, and almost insane enthusiasm 
descended. The scene surpassed description. During all 
the ballotings a man had been standing upon the roof com- 
municating the results to the outsiders, who in surging 
masses far outnumbered those who were packed in the 
Wigwam. To this man one of the secretaries shouted— 
" Fire the salute ! Abe Lincoln is nominated ! " Then, as 
the cheering inside died away, the roar began on the out- 
side, and swelled up from the excited masses like the noise 



CO NEW WORLD HEROES. 

of many waters. This the insiders heard, and to it they 
replied. Thus deep called to deep with such a frenzy of 
sympathetic enthusiasm that even the thundering salute of 
cannon was unheard by many upon the platform. 

"When the multitudes became too tired to cheer more, 
the business of the Convention proceeded. Half-a-dozen 
men were on their feet announcing the change of votes of 
their States, swelling Mr. Lincoln's majority. Missouri, 
Iowa, Kentucky, Minnesota, Virginia, California, Texas, 
District of Columbia, Kansas, Nebraska, and Oregon 
insisted on casting unanimous votes for Mr. Lincoln, 
before the vote was declared. While these changes were 
going on, a photograph of the nominee was brought in and 
exhibited to the Convention. When the vote was declared, 
Mr. Evarts, on behalf of the New York delegation, 
expressed his grief that Mr. Seward had not been nomi- 
nated, and then moved that the nomination of Mr. Lincoln 
should be made unanimous. John A. Andrew of Massa- 
chusetts, and Carl Schurz of Wisconsin, seconded the 
motion, and it was carried. Before the nomination of a 
vice-president, the Convention adjourned for dinner. It is 
reported that such had been the excitement during the 
morning session that men who never tasted intoxicating 
liquors staggered like drunken men on coming into the 
open air. The nervous tension had been so great that, 
when it subsided, they were as flaccid and feeble as if they 
had but recently risen from a fever." 

In the meantime, two hundred miles away from the 
scene of all this excitement, Abraham Lincoln was quietly 
waiting in the office of the Springfield State Journal. He 
could not but be anxious, but he kept masterly control 
over himself, and talked to his friends while his fate 
seemed to hang in the balance. The news of the first 
and second ballots had been telegraphed to him, and he 
waited the result of the third. 



ELECTED PRESIDENT. 61 

Presently a boy entered the room, and went at once to 
Mr. Lincoln. 

"Well?" 

"The nomination has taken place, and Mr. Seward — is 
not the highest." 

The Superintendent wrote on a slip of paper, " Mr. 
Lincoln, you are nominated on the third ballot." 

Mr. Lincoln said not a word. 

Then some one belonging to the Journal cried, " Three 
cheers for the new President, Abraham Lincoln of Spring- 
field," and a storm of applause answered the suggestion. 

Then Mr. Lincoln spoke, trying hard to steady his voice, 
and this is what he said : — 

" There is a little woman down at our house in Twelfth 
Street who would like to hear this. I'll go down and tell 
her." 

And in the sacred privacy of his happy home the man 
fvas able to pour forth his emotion in the most natural way. 
A wave of solemn feeling came over him. He was not 
exultant, for he knew that an awful responsibility was laid 
upon him ; but in prayer and thanksgiving he found 
courage. 

He was left alone for a time, that he might be able to 
bear the rush of thoughts. We wonder if a picture of the 
log-cabin, in which his first days were spent, did not flash 
across his mind ; and if he had not a wish that his dearly- 
beloved "angel-mother" could know how wonderfully her 
prayers had been answered, and how greatly God had 
honoured her son. Even if his father had only lived to 
see the beginning of his prosperity ; but he had now been 
dead eight years. 

However, he had soon other matters to employ his mind. 
A deputation from the Convention arrived, and the 
Hon. George Ashmum formally notified him of his 
nomination : — 



62 NEW WORLD HEROES. 

" I have, sir, the honour, in behalf of the gentlemen who 
are present, a committee appointed by the Republican Con- 
vention, recently assembled at Chicago, to discharge a most 
pleasant duty. We have come, sir, under a vote of instruc- 
tions to that committee, to notify you that you have been 
selected by the Convention of the Republicans at Chicago 
for President of the United States. They instruct us, sir, 
to notify you of that selection ; and that committee deem it 
not only respectful to yourself, but appropriate to the 
important matter which they have in hand, that they should 
come in person and present to you the authentic evidence of 
the action of that Convention ; and, sir, without any phrase 
which shall either be considered personally laudatory to 
yourself, or which shall have any reference to the principles 
involved in the questions which are connected with your 
nomination, I desire to present to you the letter which has 
been prepared, and which informs you of the nomination, 
and with it the platform resolutions and sentiments which 
the Convention adopted. Sir, at your convenience we shall 
be glad to receive from you such a response as it may be 
your pleasure to give us." 

Mr. Lincoln listened with a countenance grave and 
earnest almost to sternness, regarding Mr. Ashmum with 
the profoundest attention, and at the conclusion of that 
gentleman's remarks, after an impressive pause, he replied 
in a clear, but subdued voice, with that perfect enunciation 
which always marked his utterances, and a dignified sincerity 
of manner suited to the man and the occasion, in the 
following words : — 

"Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the committee — I tender 
to you, and through you to the Republican National Con- 
vention, and all the people represented in it, my profoundest 
thanks for the high honour done me, which you now formally 
announce. Deeply, and even painfully sensible of the great 
responsibility which I could almost wish had fallen upon 



ELECTED PRESIDENT. G3 

some one of the far more eminent men and experienced 
statesmen whose distinguished names were before the 
Convention, I shall, by your leave, consider more fully the 
resolutions of the Convention, denominated the platform, 
and, without unnecessary or unreasonable delay, respond to 
you, Mr. Chairman, in writing, not doubting that the 
platform will be found satisfactory, and the nomination 
gratefully accepted. 

" And now I will not longer defer the pleasure of taking 
you, and each of you, by the hand." 

It was thought by Mr. Lincoln's friends that such an 
occasion ought to be one of feasting and drinking ; and 
knowing that he was an abstainer from intoxicating liquors, 
one of them sent him a quantity to be used on that day. 

"What am I to do?" he asked a friend. "I do not 
want to be inhospitable, but I believe that strong drink 
does harm every way. I have never had a drink of whisky 
in my life, and do not want to have anything to do with it 
now." 

" Very well then, don't." 

" But I am afraid my good friend who sent it will 
consider it very ungracious of me not to have it used." 

"But you know, Mr. Lincoln, this is a matter of principle 
with you, and you have been elected on purpose that 
you may abide by principle." 

" So I have, and so I will." 

" Then send the liquor back — ' Declined with thanks,' * 

The President-elect did so ; and at the close of his inter- 
view with the State delegations he said, " Gentlemen, I do 
not offer you wine, because I never drink it. Can we pledge 
each other better than in clear cold water 1 " With that he 
lifted a glass of Nature's beverage to his lips, and all tiie 
gentlemen did the same. 

One of the committee was called " Tall Judge Kelly of 
Pennsylvania." When it came to his turn to shake hands 



64 NEW WORLD HEROES. 

with Mr. Lincoln, he so evidently measured him with his 
eyes, that Lincoln said, " Judge, how tall are you 1 " 

" Six feet three," was the answer. " How tall are you, 
Mr. Lincoln I " 

" Six feet four ! " 

" Then, sir," said the Judge, " Pennsylvania bows to 
Illinois. My dear man, for years my heart has been aching 
for a President that I could look up to, and I've found him 
at last in a land where we thought there was none but little 
giants." 




CHAPTER VIII. 



CONGRATULATIONS. 



The good State has broken the cords for her spun ; 
Her oil-springs and water won't fuse into one ; 
The Dutchman has seasoned with freedom his krout ; 
And slow, late, but certain, the Quakers are out. 

Give the flag to the winds, set the hills all aflame, 
Make way for the man with the patriarch's name ; 
Away with misgiving, away with all doubt, 
For Lincoln goes in when the Quakers come out." 

— Wiiittiee,. 

ROM the moment that he was made President 
until the day of his death, Mr. Lincoln had no 
more leisure. From henceforth he was the 
property of the nation, and the nation was determined to 
have its rights. Some amusing stories are told by his 
biographers. The Portland Press told of a gentleman who 
had been at the Chicago Convention, and who, when the 
nomination was made, at once started to see the candidate 
at his house. 

Arriving at Springfield, he put up at a public-house, and 
loitering at the front door, had the curiosity to inquire 
where Mr. Lincoln lived. 

b5 




66 NEW WORLD HEROES. 

" There is Mr. Lincoln now, coming down the sidewalk j 
that tall, crooked man, loosely walking this way; if you 
wish to see him, you will have an opportunity by putting 
yourself in his track." 

In a few moments the object of his curiosity reached the 
point which our friend occupied, who, advancing, ventured 
to accost him thus : — 

" Is this Mr. Lincoln 1 " 

" That, sir, is my name." 

" My name is R, from Plymouth County, Massachusetts, 
and learning that you have to-day been made the public 
property of the United States, I have ventured to introduce 
myself, with a view to a brief acquaintance, hoping you 
will pardon such patriotic curiosity in a stranger." 

Mr. Lincoln received his salutation with cordiality, told 
him no apology was necessary for his introduction, and 
asked him to accompany him to his residence. He was 
introduced to Mrs. Lincoln and the two boys. After some 
conversation concerning the Lincoln family of the Plymouth 
colony, and the history of the Pilgrim Fathers, with which 
Mr. Lincoln seemed familiar, Mr. It. desired the privilege 
of writing a letter to be despatched by the next mail. Mr. 
Lincoln very kindly and promptly provided him with the 
necessary means. As he began to write, Mr. Lincoln 
approached, and tapping him on the shoulder, expressed the 
hope that he was not a spy who had come thus early to 
report his faults to the public. 

" By no means, sir," protested Mr. It. " I am writing 
home to my wife, who, I dare say, will hardly credit the 
fact that I am writing in your house." 

" Oh, sir," exclaimed Mr. Lincoln, " if your wife doubts 
your word, I will cheerfully endorse it, if you will give me 
permission." 

He took the pen, and wrote in a clear hand upon the 
blank page of the letter us follows : — 



COXGKA TULA TIONS. 67 

" I am happy to say that your husband is at the pre- 
sent time a guest in my house, and in due time I trust 
you will greet his safe return to the bosom -of his family. 

" A. Lincoln." 

He was always most kind and patient. On one occasion he 
noticed two young men waiting about his door, as if wishing 
to speak to him, and yet feeling too timid to call. 

" How do you do, my good fellows 1 What can I do for 
you 1 Will you sit down 1 " One sat, and the other said 
bashfully, " Mr. Lincoln, I and my companion have been 
having a talk about your height. He is very tall. I think 
he is as tall as you are : he doesn't think he is ; and we just 
came in to see." 

" Oh," said Mr. Lincoln, reaching a cane, " come here, 
young man, and stand against the wall " 

The young man did so. 

" Now come out and let me stand under it. There you 
see, we are exactly of the same height. Are you satis- 
tied 1 " 

The young men said they were ; and immediately thank- 
ino 1 Mr. Lincoln, who shook hands with them, they went 
away. 

Directly afterwards an old woman called. 

" How do you do, Mr. Lincoln 1 Do you remember 
me?" 

" No, I cannot say I do." 

" But, sir, I know you very well, and I have walked ten 
miles to congratulate you." 

She then reminded him of certain incidents connected 
with his rides upon the circuits, until he recollected who she 
was and where she lived. 

" I believe that I dined at your house several times, did 
I not 1 " 

" Yes, sir ; and once when I had nothing to give you but 
bread and milk." 



68 NEW WORLD HEROES. 

" I don't remember that ; I think I always dined well at 
your place." 

" No ; once you did not, and you said a very remarkable 
thing. You came along after we had got through dinner, and 
had eaten everything up, and I could give you nothing but 
a bowl of bread and milk. But you ate it and seemed 
satisfied ; and when you got up to leave you said, ' I have 
had a good dinner, good enough for the President of the 
United States.'" 

"Did I, indeed?" 

" Yes, you did ; and now, sure enough, you are the Pre- 
sident." 

" The President-elect," he said ; and he had a very 
pleasant talk with his old friend. 

But he found the frequent calls and interviews rather 
disturbing. He wanted peace and quiet in his home ; and 
so the Executive Chamber, a large room in the State House, 
was fitted up for him, and here he held his receptions until 
he should depart for Washington. " Here he met the 
millionaire and the menial, the priest and the politician, 
women and children, old friends and new friends, those 
who called for love, and those who sought for office. 
From morning until night this was his business, and he 
performed it with conscientious care, and the most unweary- 
ing patience." 

Adjoining and opening into the Executive Chamber was 
a room occupied by Mr. Newton Bateman, Superintendent 
of Public Instruction for the State of Illinois, a friend of 
Mr. Lincoln, with whom he often had a quiet talk. On one of 
these occasions he uttered these significant words, afterwards 
given to the public by his biographer, Holland — " I know 
there is a God, and that He hates injustice and slavery. I 
see the storm coming, and I know that His hand is in it. 
If He has a place and work for me — and I think He has — 
Z believe I am ready. I am nothing, but truth is every- 



CONGRATULATIONS. 69 

thing. I know I am right, because I know that liberty is 
right, for Christ teaches it, and Christ is God. I have 
told them that a house divided against itself cannot 
stand, and Christ and reason say the same ; and they will 
find it so. Douglas don't care whether slavery if? voted 
up or voted down, but God cares, and humanity cares, 
and I care ; and* with God's help I shall not fail. I may 
not see the end ; but it will come, and T shall be vindi- 
cated ; and these men will find that they have not read their 
Bibles aright." 

These words were spoken when he was feeling very sad, 
because some ministers -had voted against him, and for 
slavery. Mr. Bateman was surprised at the religious 
feeling they expressed, and Lincoln said, " I think more upon 
these subjects than upon all others, and have done so for 
years." 

Generally he hid these deeper feelings from others ; and 
was full of the grotesque, the witty, and the funny. He 
was a good tale-teller, and gave himself up to mirth like a 
boy. 

But a little story is told of an address in a Sunday- 
school, in connection with his visit to New York, already 
referred to as the occasion of his speech at Cooper 
Institute, which gives additional evidence that his heart 
was right. 

" One Sunday morning I saw a tall, remarkable-looking 
man enter the room and take a seat among us. He 
listened with fixed attention to our exercises, and his 
countenance expressed such genuine interest that I ap- 
proached him, and suggested that he might be willing to 
say something to the children. He accepted the invitation 
with evident pleasure ; and, coming forward, began a simple 
address, which at once fascinated every little hearer, and 
hushed the room into silence. His language was strikingly 
beautiful, and his tones musical, with intense feeling. 



70 NEW WORLD HEROES. 

The little faces would droop into sad conviction as he 
uttered sentences of warning, and would brighten into 
sunshine as he spoke cheerfully words of promise. Once 
or twice he attempted to close his remarks, but the 
imperative shout of 'Go on ! Oh, do go on ! ' would 
compel him to resume. As I looked upon the gaunt and 
sinewy frame of the stranger, and marked his powerful 
head and determined features, now touched into softness 
by the impressions of the moment, I felt an irrepressible 
curiosity to learn something more about him, and while 
he was quietly leaving the room I begged to know his 
name. He courteously replied, 'It is Abraham Lincoln, 
from Illinois.'" 

During this visit, too, Abraham Lincoln attended divine 
service at the church of the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher. 
The place was packed, but Mr. Nelson Sizer, recognising 
Lincoln, gave up his own seat to the President-elect, who 
evidently enjoyed the sermon exceedingly. He told the 
Rev. M. Field of New York that " he thought there was 
not upon record, in ancient or modern biography, so 
productive a mind as had been exhibited in the career of 
Henry Ward Beecher." 

As the months passed away between the nomination and 
the election, Abraham Lincoln was exalted by his friends 
and cruelly slandered by his enemies. The mental strain 
upon him was so great that he "saw visions," and was a 
little disturbed by them. A settled sadness at one time 
seemed to come over him ; and he told his wife that he felt 
a pang, as though something dreadful had happened. She 
sympathised with him, and said that though he might be 
elected to a second term of office, she was afraid he would 
not live to complete it, though on the other hand she said 
the tiling he had seen might be a sign of a good career. 

" On the 6th November the election took place through- 
out the whole country, and the result was Mr. Lincoln's 



CONOR A TULA TIONS. 7 1 

triumph, not by a majority of the votes cast, but by a 
handsome plurality. The popular vote for him was 
1,857,610; while Stephen A. Douglas received 1,365,976 
votes, John 0. Breckinridge 847,953, and John Bell 
590,631. In the electoral college Mr. Lincoln had 180, 
Mr. Douglas received 12, Mr. Breckinridge 72, and Mr. 
Bell 39." 

Mr. Lincoln was in quiet retirement while the election 
went on. He knew that though many were rejoicing in the 
North, in the South thick storms of rebellion were gathering. 
Mr. Stephens, the Vice-President of the Rebel Confeder- 
acy, said — " The question that presents itself is, Sh ,11 the 
people of the South secede from the Union in consequence of 
the election of Mr. Lincoln 1 My countrymen, I tell you 
candidly, frankly, and earnestly, that I do not think they 
ought. In my judgment the election of no man, constitu- 
tionally chosen to that high office, is sufficient cause for any 
state to separate from the Union. It ought to stand by and 
aid still in maintaining the constitution of the country. To 
make a point of resistance to the government, to withdraw 
from it because a man has been constitutionally elected, 
puts us in the wrong. . . . We went into the election with 
this people. The result was different from what we 
wished ; but the election has been constitutionally held. 
\y ere W e to make a point of resistance to the Government, 
and go out of the Union on this account, the record would 
be made up hereafter against us." 

These were wise words, but the people were not willing 
to accept and abide by them. 

The time came for Mr. Lincoln to leave the old life and 
enter upon the new. His progress from Springfield to the 
White House at Washington was full of incidents. Every- 
where he was met by crowds at the railway stations, and 
everywhere he was expected to make addresses. It was 
not without regret that he left the old house in which he 



72 XEW WORLD HEROES. 

had been very happy, and the neighbours who had been 
kind to him, and his farewell words to them are full of 
pathos : — 

" My friends — No one not in my position can appreciate the 
sadness I feel at this parting. To this people I owe all that 
I am. Here I have lived more than a quarter of a century. 
Here my children were born, and here one of them lies 
buried. I know not how soon I shall see you again. A 
duty devolves upon me which is perhaps greater than that 
which has devolved upon any other man since the days of 
Washington. He never would have succeeded except for 
the aid of Divine Providence, upon which he at all times 
relied. I feel that I cannot succeed without the aid of the 
same Divine aid which sustained him, and in the same 
Almighty Being I place my reliance for support ; and I 
hope you, my friends, will all pray that I may receive that 
Divine assistance, without which I cannot succeed, but 
with which success is certain. Again I bid you all an 
affectionate farewell." 

The spirit of this little address shows Abraham Lincoln 
at his best. It was noticed by his biographers that no two 
persons spoke of him in the same terms. His acquaintances 
did not see him with the same eyes ; he revealed one part 
of himself to one person and quite another to the next 
individual with whom he came in contact. 

" He visited Chicago after his election, and met with a 
magnificent welcome. One or two little incidents of this 
trip will illustrate especially his consideration for children. 
He was holding a reception at the Tremont House. A 
fond father took in a little boy by the hand who was 
anxious to see the new President. The moment the child 
entered the parlour door, he, of his own notion, and quite 
to the surprise of his father, took off his hat. and giving it a 
swing, cried, 'Hurrah for Lincoln!' There was a crowd, 
but as soon as Mr. Lincoln could get hold of the little 



CO NORA TULA TIONS. 73 

fellow, lie lifted him in his hands, and tossing him towards 
the ceiling, laughingly shouted, ' Hurrah for you ! ' To Mr. 
Lincoln it was evidently a refreshing episode in the dreary 
work of hand-shaking. At a party in Chicago during this 
visit he saw a little girl timidly approaching him. He 
called her to him, and asked her what she wished for. She 
replied that she wanted his name. Mr. Lincoln looked back 
into the room and said, ' But here are other little srirls — 
they would feel badly if I should give my name only to 
you ! ' The little girl replied that there were only eight of 
them in all. ' Then,' said Mr. Lincoln, ' get me eight sheets 
of paper, and a pen and ink, and I will see what I can do 
for you ! ' The paper was brought, and Mr. Lincoln sat down 
in the crowded dining-room and wrote a sentence upon 
each sheet, appending his name ; and thus every little girl 
carried off her souvenir." 

He must have found some of the congratulations, both 
from their number and their force, more than a little 
irksome. 

" People plunged at his arms with frantic enthusiasm, 
and all the infinite variety of shakes, from the wild and 
irrepressible pump-handle movement to the dead-grip, was 
executed upon the devoted dexter and sinister of the 
President. Some glanced at his face as they grasped his 
hand ; others invoked the blessing of heaven upon him ; 
others affectionately gave him their last gasping assurance 
of devotion ; others, bewildered and furious, with hats 
crushed over their eyes, seized his hand in a convulsive 
grasp, and passed on, as if they had not the remotest idea 
who, what, or where they were." 



CHAPTER IX. 



FROM SPRINGFIELD TO WASHINGTON. 




lt Forever then their visions see 
The dawn of rising liberty, 
"Reflecting through the morning air 
In answer to their earnest prayer : 
And Freedom's virgin fires flame 
Within their hearts in Lincoln's name." 

— BLAXCnARD. 

INCOLN'S journey was, as we have said, made 
from stage to stage the opportunity of declaring 
his sentiments in the different towns through 
which he passed ; and these were delivered in his own 
masterly style. Everywhere he was welcomed with the 
greatest loyalty and hopefulness, and nowhere did he 
disappoint those who trusted him. 

At Indiana he said : — " Fellow-citizens of the State of 
Indiana — I am here to thank you for this magnificent 
welcome, and still more for the very generous support given 
by your State to that political cause which, I think, is the 
true and just cause of the whole country and the whole 
world. Solomon says, 'There is a time to keep silence;' 
and when men wrangle by the mouth, with no certainty 



FROM SPRINGFIELD TO WASHINGTON. 7b 

that they mean the same thing while using the same words } 
it perhaps were as well if they kept silence. 

" The words ' coercion ' and 'invasion ' are much used in 
these days, and often with some temper and hot blood. 
Let us make sure, if we can, that we do not misunderstand 
the meaning of those who use them. Let us get the exact 
definition of these words, not from dictionaries, but from 
the men themselves, who certainly deprecate the things 
they would represent by the use of the words. What, then, 
is ' coercion 1 ' What is ' invasion 1 ' Would the marching 
of an army into South Carolina, without the consent of her 
people, and with hostile intent toward them, be invasion 1 
I certainly think it would, and it would be coercion also if 
the South Carolinians were forced to submit. But if the 
United States should merely hold and retake its own forts 
and other property, and collect the duties on foreign im- 
portations, or even withhold the mails from places where 
they were habitually violated, would any or all of these 
things be invasion or coercion 1 Do our professed lovers of 
the Union, who spitefully resolve that they will resist 
coercion and invasion, understand that such things as these, 
on the part of the United States, would be coercion or 
invasion of a State 1 If so, their ideas of means to preserve 
the object of their great affection would seem to be exceed- 
ingly thin and airy. If sick, the little pills of the horuceo- 
pathist would be much too large for it to swallow. In their 
view the Union, as a family relation, would seem to be no 
regular marriage, but rather a sort of free-love arrangement, 
to be maintained on passional attraction. 

" By the way, in what consists the special sacredness of a 
State ? I speak not in the position assigned to a State in 
the Union by the Constitution, for that is a bond we all 
recognise. That position, however, a State cannot carry 
out of the Union with it. I speak of that assumed primary 
right of a State to rule all which is less than itself, and to 



76 NEW WORLD HEROES. 

ruin all which is larger than itself. If a State and a 
county in a given case should be equal in number of in- 
habitants, in what, as a matter of principle, is the State 
better than the county 1 ? Would an exchange of name be 
an exchange of rights 1 Upon what principle, upon what 
rightful principle, may a State, being no more than one- 
fiftieth part of the nation in soil and population, break up 
the nation and then coerce a proportionably large sub- 
division of itself in the most arbitrary way % What 
mysterious right to play tyrant is conferred on a district 
or county, with its people, by simply calling it a State 1 
Fellow-citizens, I am not asserting anything : I am merely 
asking questions for you to consider. And now allow 
me to bid you farewell." 

At New Jersey he concluded his speech by saying — " I 
shall endeavour to take the ground I deem most just to the 
North, the East, the West, and the South, and the whole 
country. I take it, I hope, in good temper, certainly with 
no malice towards any section. I shall do all that may be 
in my power to promote a peaceful settlement of all our 
difficulties. The man does not live who is more devoted to 
peace than I am ; none who would do more to preserve it. 
But it may be necessary to put the foot firmly down ; and 
if I do my duty, and do it right, you will sustain me, will 
you not 1 Received as I am by the members of a Legisla- 
ture, the majority of whom do not agree with me in political 
sentiment, I trust that I may have their assistance in pilot- 
ing the ship of State through this voyage, surrounded by 
perils as it is ; for, if it should suffer shipwreck now, there 
will be no pilot needed for another voyage." 

Both at New Jersey and New York his reception was 
most enthusiastic, and when he reached Philadelphia he 
was warmly received by the Mayor. In his reply he said 
— "It were useless for me to speak of details of plans now. 
I shall speak officially next Monday week, if ever. If 



FROM SPRINGFIELD TO WASHINGTON. 77 

I should not speak then, it were useless for me to do 
so now." 

Mrs. Lincoln and their two sons were travelling with 
the President during the eventful journey, which was less 
eventful than some of his foes meant to make it. He had 
known that all along the route were some men seeking to 
take his life. An endeavour was made to throw the train 
off the track soon after it left Springfield ; and at Oincinatti 
a hand grenade was found concealed upon the train. At 
Philadelphia the whole plot was unfolded to him. A 
detective of great skill and experience undertook to ferret 
out the conspiracy, and he got several persons to assist 
him. He found that the conspirators were resolved that 
Mr. Lincoln should not pass through Baltimore alive ; 
that in case he should reach Baltimore, lie should be shot 
by one of a party that was to gather round the carriage 
in the guise of friends. A hand grenade was to complete 
the work which the pistol had begun. 

The detective had an interview with the President on his 
arrival at Philadelphia. Mr. Lincoln told him that he had 
two engagements — the one was to raise the American flag on 
Independence Hall the next morning, which happened to be 
the anniversary of Washington's birthday ; and that he had 
accepted an invitation to a reception by the Pennsylvanian 
Legislature the same afternoon. "Both of these engage- 
ments I will keep," said he, " if it costs me my life." 

In the meantime General Scott and Senator Seward, who 
were in Washington, sent Mr. Frederick W. Seward to 
Philadelphia to warn Mr. Lincoln that his life was in 
danger, and it would be wise to come to Washington in the 
quietest possible way. He knew, therefore, that the slave- 
power was in active revolt, and the friends of slavery were 
seeking his life. But he did not shrink from the per- 
formance of his duty. He uttered these words in 
Independence Hall : — 



78 NEW WORLD HEROES. 

" I am filled with deep emotion at finding myself standing 
here in this place, where were collected the wisdom, the 
patriotism, the devotion to principle from which sprang the 
institutions under which we live. You have kindly sug- 
gested to me that in my hands is the task of restoring peace 
to the present disturbed state of the country. I can say in 
return, sir, that all the political sentiments I entertain have 
been drawn, as far as I have been able to draw them, from the 
sentiments which originated in, and have been given to the 
world from this Hall. I have never had a feeling politically 
that did not spring from the sentiments embodied in the 
Declaration of Independence. I have often pondered over 
the dangers that were incurred by the men who assembled 
here, and framed and adopted that Declaration of Indepen- 
dence. I have pondered over the toils that were endured by 
the officers and soldiers of the army who achieved that 
independence. I have often inquired of myself what idea 
or principle it was that kept this confederacy so long 
together. It was not the mere matter of the separation of 
the colonies from the mother-land, but that sentiment that 
gave liberty not alone to the people of this country, but to 
the world for all future time. It was that which gave 
promise that in due time the weight would be lifted from 
the shoulders of all men. This is a sentiment embodied in 
the Declaration of Independence. Now, my friends, can 
this country be saved upon this basis 1 If it can, I will 
consider myself one of the happiest men in the world if I 
can help to save it. If it cannot be saved upon that 
principle, it will be truly awful. But if this country 
cannot be saved without giving up that principle, I was 
about to say I would rather be assassinated on this spot 
than surrender it. Now, in my view of the present aspect 
of affairs, there need be no bloodshed or war. There is no 
necessity for it. I am not in favour of such a course ; and 
I may say in advance that there will be no bloodshed, 



FROM SPRINGFIELD TO WASHINGTON. 7 ( J 

unless it be forced upon the Government, and then it wilJ 
bo compelled to act in self-defence." 

At the close of the speech Mr. Lincoln went, as invited, 
on the platform outside, and with a few words to the people, 
ran up the beautiful flag to the top of the staff, amid the 
hearty cheers of many thousands. 

Abraham Lincoln was not lacking in courage, but the fact 
remains that he entered the capital about six o'clock in the 
morning, and when only a few of his friends expected him. 
It was considered absolutely necessary for the safety of his 
life that special precautions should be taken. His family 
remained behind, and went on by the special train that was 
prepared for the President ; but the news was telegraphed 
that Lincoln himself had safely arrived, and was staying 
with Senator Seward at Willard's Hotel. Two days later 
he was serenaded by the Republican Association, and waited 
upon by the Mayor and municipal authorities, who gave 
him a cordial welcome. He suitably replied to both 
deputations. 

Holland says — "The days that preceded the inauguration 
were rapidly passing away. In the meantime, although 
General Scott had been busy and efficient in his military 
preparations for the occasion, many were fearful that scenes 
of violence would be enacted on that day, even should Mr. 
Lincoln be permitted to escape assassination until then. It 
was a time of fearful uncertainty. The leading society of 
Washington hated Mr. Lincoln and the principles he repre- 
sented. If it would be uncharitable to say that they would 
have rejoiced at his death, it is certainly true that they 
were in perfect sympathy with those who were plotting his 
destruction. His coming and remaining would be death to 
the social dominance of slavery in the national capital. 
This they felt, and nothing would have pleased them better 
than a revolution which should send Mr. Lincoln back to 
Illinois, and instal Jefferson Davis in the White House. 



80 NEW WORLD HEROES. 

There was probably not one man in five in Washington, at 
the time Mr. Lincoln entered the city, who, in his heart, 
gave him welcome. It is not to be wondered at that his 
friends all over the country looked nervously forward to the 
4 th of March. 

But the inaugural day broke beautifully clear, and the 
true friends of the new President surged into the city by 
thousands. There was an unusual display of soldiers, but 
all beside looked as usual on these occasions. Most of the 
schools and places of business were closed, and the stars and 
stripes floated from every flagstaff. Those who were in the 
hall regarded with the profoundest interest the entrance of 
President Buchanan and the President-elect — the outgoing 
and the incoming man. Judge Taney administered the oath 
to Mr. Lincoln, and the judge was exceedingly agitated as 
he did so. Every one listened with an absorbed interest, so 
profound as to be almost painful, to the inaugural address 
of the President. It was moderate and conciliatory, marked 
by respectful friendliness to the South, and clear and wise 
throughout. 

" Fellow-citizens of the United States — In compliance 
with a custom as old as the Government itself, I appear 
before you to address you briefly, and to take in your 
presence the oath prescribed by the constitution of the 
United States to be taken by the President before he 
enters on the execution of his office ... I take the official 
oath to-day with no mental reservations, and with no 
purpose to construe the constitution or laws by any 
hypocritical rules ; and while I do not choose now to specify 
particular acts of Congress as proper to be enforced, I do 
suggest that it will be much safer for all, both in official 
and private stations, to conform to and abide by all those 
acts which stand unrepealed, than to violate any of them, 
trusting to find impunity in having them held to be un- 
constitutional . . . Such of you as are now dissatisfied still 



FROM SPRINGFIELD TO WASHINGTON. 81 

have the old constitution unimpaired, and, on the sensitive 
point, the laws of your own framing under it ; while the 
new administration will have no immediate power, if it 
would, to change either. If it were admitted that you, who 
are dissatisfied, hold the right side in the dispute, there ia 
still no single reason for precipitate action. Intelligence, 
patriotism, Christianity, and a firm reliance on Him who has 
never yet forsaken this favoured land, are still competent to 
adjust in the best way all our present difficulties. In 
your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and not in 
mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The Govern- 
ment will not assail you. You can have no conflict without 
being yourselves the aggressors. You have no oath re- 
gistered in heaven to destroy the Government, while I shall 
have the most solemn one to preserve, protect, and defend 
it. I am loth to close. We are not enemies but friends. 
We must not be enemies. Though passion may have 
strained, it must not break our bond of affection. The 
mystic cord of memory, stretching from every battle-field 
and patriot-grave to every living heart and hearthstone all 
over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union 
when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better 
angels of our nature." 

"This address," says Dr. Brockett, "was delivered in 
tones distinctly audible to the vast throng who surrounded 
the President ; and almost before the echo of his voice had 
faded from their hearing, the telegraph and the printing- 
press carried it to the homes and the hearts of his country- 
men in other parts of the Union. To the people it brought 
the welcome assurance that imbecility, double-dealing, and 
treachery no longer held sway over the nation ; that the 
new President was determined to maintain the national 
integrity ; and that, while faithful to his official oath, he 
would use every lawful and reasonable means to avert the 
evils of domestic war. . . . Men felt that a new political 

B 6 



82 NEW WORLD HEROES. 

era had dawned, and breathed more freely even in the face 
of dangers that encompassed the Republic/' 

Mr. Lincoln's first duty was to appoint his Cabinet, and 
this he proceeded at once to do. The position occupied by 
Mr. Seward before the country was such as to point him out 
as the person to occupy the highest point of honour under 
the executive, and Mr. Lincoln had no hesitation in asking 
him to become the Secretary of State. Judge Bates of 
Missouri was made Attorney-General ; Salmon P. Chase of 
Ohio was appointed to the Treasury ; and Simon Cameron 
of Pennsylvania became Secretary of War. Mr. Wells of 
Connecticut was Secretary of the Navy ; Mr. Montgomery 
Blair of Maryland, Postmaster-General ; and Mr. Caleb 
Smith of Indiana was Secretary of the Interior. 

A more disagreeable and irksome duty followed ; but it 
was necessary to sift out all the disloyal men who filled 
responsible positions. Lieutenant-General Scott, the head 
of the army, tendered his advice and services. At the time 
of the inauguration seven States had revolted, and there 
was treason everywhere ; but Mr. Lincoln was determined 
that if a first shot were fired it should be by the rebels and 
not the Government. The rebels had taken some forts ; 
but a gallant little band in Fort Sumter, Charleston Har- 
bour, refused to surrender. There was a bombardment of 
thirty-three hours "sustained by Anderson and his little 
band of heroes, only seventy in number," and the fort had to 
be evacuated on Sunday morning, the 14th of April 1861. 

These were dark days for Abraham Lincoln. Trouble 
and treachery met him in unexpected places. He was for 
peace, but his enemies were determined to have war, and it 
was evident that force must be met with force. 



CHAPTER X 



WAR ! 



il ' Come to the rescue ! ' The cry went forth 

Through the length and breadth of the loyal North, 

For the gun that startled Sumter heard 

Wakened the land with its fiery word. 

The farmer paused with his work half done, 

And snatched from the nail his rusty gun ; 

And the smart mechanic wiped his brow, 

Shouting ' There's work for my strong arm now ! ' 

And the parson doffed his gown, and said — 

' Bring me my right good sword instead ! ' 

And the scholar paused in his eager quest, 

And buckled his belt on with the rest ; 

And each and all to the rescue went 

As unto a royal tournament ; 

For the loyal blood of a nation stirred 

To the gun that startled Sumter heard." 

—Caroline A. Mason. 




N the 15th of April, the day after the evacuati i 
of Fort Sumter, the President issued his first 
proclamation : — 
"Whereas the laws of the United States have been 
for some time past, and are now, opposed, and the execu- 
tive thereof obstructed in the States of South Carolina, 



84 NEW WORLD HEROES. 

Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, and 
Texas, by combinations too powerful to be suppressed by 
the ordinary course of judicial proceedings, or by the 
power vested in the marshals by law; now, therefore, 
I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, 
in virtue of the power in me vested by the Constitution and 
the laws, have thought fit to call forth, and hereby do call 
forth, the militia of the several States of the Union, to the 
aggregate number of 75,000, in order to suppress said com- 
binations, and to cause the laws to be duly executed. 

" The details of this object will be immediately communi- 
cated to the State authorities through the War Department. 
I appeal to all loyal citizens to favour, facilitate, and aid 
this effort to maintain the honour, the integrity, and exist- 
ence of our national Union, and the perpetuity of popular 
government, and to redress wrongs already long enough 
endured. I deem it proper to say, that the first service 
assigned to the forces hereby called forth will probably be 
to repossess the forts, places, and property which have been 
seized from the Union ; and in every event the utmost care 
will be observed, consistently with the objects aforesaid, to 
avoid any devastation, any destruction of, *>r interference 
with property, or any disturbance of peaceful citizens of 
any part of the country ; and I hereby command the 
persons composing the combinations aforesaid to disperse 
and return peaceably to their respective abodes within 
twenty days from this date. Deeming that the present 
condition of public affairs presents an extraordinary oc- 
casion, I do hereby, in virtue of the power in me vested by 
the constitution, convene both Houses of Congress. The 
senators and representatives are, therefore, summoned to 
assemble at their respective chambers at twelve o'clock 
noon, on Thursday, the fourth day of July next, then and 
there to consider and determine such measures as, in their 
wisdom, the public safety and interest seem to demand. — In 



WAR/ 85 

witness whereof, I hereunto set my hand, and cause the seal 
of the United States to be affixed. 

"Done at the City of Washington, this fifteenth day 
of April, in the year of our Lord one thousand 
eight hundred and sixty-one, and of the In- 
dependence of the United States the eighty-fifth. 

" Abraham Lincoln. 
" By the President : 

"William H. Seward, Secretary of State ." 

" The utterance of this proclamation," says a historian, 
" was so clearly a necessity, and was so directly a response to 
the uprising of the people, that not a voice was raised against 
it. It was received with no small degree of excitement, 
but it was a healthy excitement. It was a necessity, and 
loyal men felt everywhere that the great struggle between 
slavery and the country was upon them. ' Better that it 
should be settled by us than by our children,' they said ; and 
in their self-devotion they were encouraged by their mothers, 
sisters, and wives. The South knew that war must come, 
and they were prepared. Nearly all the Southern ports 
were already in their hands. They had robbed the Northern 
arsenals through the miscreant Floyd. They had cut off the 
payment of debts due to the North. They had ransacked 
the mails so that the Government could have no communi- 
cation with its friends and forces. They had been instruct- 
ing officers for years, and drilling troops for months. They 
knew that there were not arms enough in the North to 
furnish an army competent to overcome them. When, 
therefore, Mr. Lincoln called for his seventy-five thousand 
men, they met the proclamation with a howl of derision." 

But they did not know the North ! Under the influence 
of the insult to the national flag all the patriotism of the 
North was aroused, and there was a universal desire to 



86 NEW WORLD BE •ROES. 

avenge the fall of Sumter. Every Northern State responded, 
and from private persons as well as from the Legislatures 
men, arms, and money were offered with a profusion that 
was absolutely lavish. Massachusetts was first, for it had 
troops already at hand. Governor Banks had said years 
before, that "troops would be called upon to suppress a 
slaveholders' rebellion." He had gone out of office now, but 
his prediction was fulfilled, and his successor, Governor 
Andrew, promptly despatched the troops which were ready. 
The " Massachusetts Sixth " marched off at once, com- 
pletely equipped, and within forty-eight hours two other 
regiments also left Boston, on their way to Washington. 
As the " Sixth " passed through Baltimore it was met by a 
mob, carrying a secession flag, and a free fight ensued, by 
which several men were killed and wounded. This raised 
the excitement of the people to boiling point. The entire 
section of the Union in the North felt outraged that troops 
should be assailed and murdered while going to protect 
the capital of the nation. Governor Hicks of Maryland, 
and Major Brown of Baltimore, urged that no more troops 
should pass through Baltimore ; and the men burnt down 
the bridges so that the troops should not have access to the 
town. Governor Hicks proposed that the matter should 
be referred to Lord Lyons, the British Minister, for 
arbitration ; but Mr. Seward replied for the President that 
they ought not to refer their domestic contentions to any 
foreign power for settlement. Eventually the troops were 
forwarded by way of Annapolis. 

A pleasant ray of light in the darkness of the trout le 
that hung over President Lincoln was the reconciliation 
effected by Mr Ashmum between Lincoln and Douglas. 
At first Douglas hesitated, but his wife being called in, 
threw all the weight of her influence into the scale. " He 
gave up all his enmity and resentment, cast every unworthy 
sentiment behind him, and cordially declared his willing- 



WAR/ 87 

ness to go to Mr. Lincoln and offer him his earnest and 
hearty support." Mr. Lincoln welcomed him, and the two 
were faithful friends until the death of Mr. Douglas. 

The secession of the States of Virginia, Tennessee, North 
Carolina, and Arkansas, was soon proclaimed. Then 
Washington, which was in great danger, was the scene of 
important military operations. Fortress Monroe, command- 
ing the gateway of Virginia, was reinforced and held, and 
Harper's Ferry was blown up. 

Mr. Lincoln had no longer his old antagonist Mr. Douglas 
to deal with, but he had instead Mr. Jefferson Davis, who 
convened his Congress at Montgomery, and issued a docu- 
ment which declared the rightfulness of his position, and 
tried to shift the blame to the shoulders of Abraham 
Lincoln. 

Fighting now began in earnest. On the 10th of June 
was fought the battle of Big Bethel. A young officer, 
Major Winthrop, a man of great bravery and literary 
ability, whose loss was severely felt, was killed in the 
fight, and greatly mourned by Lincoln. So was another 
man, Colonel Ellsworth, who died under the following 
circumstances : — A secession flag had been planted on a 
building in Alexandria, in sight of the capitol at Washing- 
ton. Colonel Ellsworth went personally to the Marshal 
House, kept by James Jackson, and mounting to the top, 
pulled down the secession flag. James Jackson at once 
shot him dead. His body was borne to the White House, 
and the sight of it filled Mr. Lincoln with grief. 

" This was a friend of mine ; I knew him well," he said, 
in broken accents. " He was a student in my office when 
I and Herndon were together. Poor young martyr ! One 
of the first, but how many are to follow ! " 

When the young man whose death had so affected the 
President was buried, Mr. Lincoln himself attended U 
funeral as chief mourner. 



SS NEW WORLD HEROES. 

The trouble of Mr. Lincoln was greatly increased by that 
which came next. " On the 16th of July the national army, 
of about thirty thousand men, under General McDowell, 
moved forward and attacked the enemy at Bull Run on 
the twenty-first, the result being the defeat, with a loss of 
four hundred and eighty killed, and one thousand wounded, 
of our forces, who fell back on Washington in the greatest 
confusion and disorder. Had the rebel forces closely 
followed the panic-stricken fugitives, the capitol would have 
been their easy prey." The result of this battle was 
naturally exceedingly disappointing to the country ; but the 
people did not lose heart : their courage and determination 
only became stronger. We are not writing a history of the 
American War, and do not therefore describe the battles. 
But we give, in the words of the Hon. George Bancroft, in 
his memorable address, a condensed account of the spirit in 
which it was carried on by Mr. Lincoln and the loyal 
people : — 

" When it came home to the consciousness of the 
Americans that the war which they were waging was a war 
for the liberty of all the nations of the world, for freedom 
itself, they thanked God for giving them strength to endure 
the severity of the trial to which He put their sincerity, 
and nerved themselves for their duty with an inexorable 
will. 

" The President was led along by the greatness of their 
self-sacrificing example ; and, as a child in a dark night, on 
a rugged way, catches hold of the hand of its father for 
guidance and support, he clung fast to the hand of the 
people, and moved calmly through the gloom. While the 
statesmanship of Europe was mocking at the hopeless 
vanity of their eflbrts, they put forth such miracles of 
energy as the history of the world had never known. The 
contributions to the popular loans amounted in four years 
to twenty-seven and a-half hundred millions of dollars ; the 



WAR! 89 

revenue of the country from taxation was increased seven 
fold. The navy of the United States, drawing into the 
public service the willing militia of the seas, doubled its 
tonnage in eight months, and established an actual blockade 
from Cape Hatteras to the Rio Grande. In the course of 
the war it was increased fivefold in men and in tonnage, 
while the inventive genius of the country devised more 
effective means of ordnance, and new forms of naval 
architecture in wood and iron. There went into the field, 
for various terms of enlistment, about two millions of men, 
and at the close of the war the men in the army exceeded 
a million. 

..." In one single month one hundred and sixty-five 
thousand men were recruited into service. Once, within 
four weeks, Ohio organised and placed in the field forty- 
two regiments of infantry, nearly thirty-six thousand men ; 
and Ohio was like other States in the east and in the west. 
The well-mounted cavalry numbered eighty-four thousand 
of horses and mules : there were bought, from first to last, 
two-thirds of a million. In the movements of the troops 
science came in aid of patriotism, so that, to choose a 
single instance out of many, an army twenty-three thousand 
strong, with its artillery, trains, baggage, and animals, was 
moved by rail from the Potomac to the Tennessee, twelve 
hundred miles, in seven days. On the long marches wonders 
of military construction bridged the rivers, and wherever an 
army halted ample supplies awaited them at their ever- 
changing base. The vile thought that life is the greatest 
blessing did not rise up. In six hundred and twenty-five 
battles and severe skirmishes blood flowed like water. It 
streamed over the grassy plains, it stained the rocks ; the 
undergrowth of the forest was red with it ; and the armies 
marched on with majestic courage from one conflict to 
another, knowing that they were fighting for God and 
liberty. The organisation of the medical department met its 



90 



NEW WORLD HEROES. 



infinitely multiplied duties with exactness and despatch. 
At the news of a battle the best surgeons of our cities 
hastened to the field to offer the untiring aid of the greatest 
experience and skill. The gentlest and most refined of 
women left homes of luxury and ease to build hospital-tents 
near the armies, and serve as nurses to the sick and dying. 
Besides the large supply of religious teachers by the public, 
the congregations spared to their brothers in the field the 
ablest ministers. The Christian Commission, which expended 
more than six million and a quarter of dollars, sent nearly 
five thousand clergymen, chosen out of the best, to keep 
unsoiled the religious character of the men, and made gifts 
of clothes, food, and medicine. The organisation of private 
charity assumed unheard-of dimensions. The Sanitary Com- 
mission, which had seven thousand societies, distributed, 
under the direction of an unpaid board, spontaneous contri- 
butions to the amount of fifteen millions in supplies or 
money, a million-and-a-half in money from California alone, 
and dotted the scene of war, from Paducah to Port Royal, 
from Belle Plain, Virginia, to Brownsville, Texas, with 
homes and lodges. " 









CHAPTER XI. 



EMANCIPATION. 



Emancipation is proclaimed, 

The shackles fall— the slave's unchained." 




R. LINCOLN was always careful to insist on the 
truth that the war was entered into to preserve 
the Union, and not for the abolition of slavery. 
Rut events pointed to this as the great result ; and Abraham 
Lincoln, whose soul hated slavery, could not but be thankful 
to have been the man chosen by God to set the slaves 
free. 

In the meantime the terrible war and its miseries pressed 
on no heart more heavily than that of the President. He 
had lived among the people, and knew many of them, and 
when he heard of the losses of the men he frequently shed 
tears. " Poor fellows ! I am thinking of our poor fellows," 
he would say. 

Of course he had many advisers. He was too cautious 
and deliberate for some people, who wondered why he did 
not at once declare the emancipation of the slaves. But 
there are two sides to every question, and Mr. Lincoln 
never limited his view to one of them. At last a good deal 



92 NEW WORLD HEROES. 

of pressure was brought to bear upon him, especially in the 
press ; and a long letter from Horace Greeley, printed in the 
New York Tribune, though somewhat intemperate and 
severe, put the case of the slaves very earnestly before the 
President and the public. Mr. Lincoln replied to it, 
declaring that his first desire was to save the Union, as 
he had sworn by oath to do. 

" People wish to hurry me," he said to a friend, " but I 
must wait until I see that the time has come. Many point 
out to me what they consider my duty, and say that divine 
Providence has revealed it. May not I hope that light will 
be given to me 1 " 

At length it seemed to him that the exigencies of the 
army called for the emancipation of the slaves. News of 
the battle of Antietam came to the President while he was 
on a visit to the Soldier's Home. He had already written 
the draft of a preliminary proclamation, and he at once 
went back to Washington and called a Cabinet, at which he 
said the time for emancipation had come. 

" I believe that public sentiment will support it," he said. 
" Many of my warmest friends and adherents have demanded 
it, and I have promised my God that I will do it." The 
last words were uttered very reverently, and in low tones. 

" Did I understand you correctly, Mr. President ? " asked 
Mr. Clay, who sat nearest him, in surprise. 

And Lincoln replied — " I made a solemn vow before God 
that if General Lee should be driven back from Pennsylvania, 
I would crown the result by a declaration of freedom to the 
slaves." 

Accordingly, on the 22d of September the proclamation 
was issued : — 

" I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States of 
America, and Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy 
thereof, do hereby proclaim and declare that hereafter, as 



EMANCIPATION. 93 

heretofore, the war will be prosecuted for the object of 
practically restoring the constitutional relation between the 
United States and the people thereof in those States in 
which that relation is or may be suspended or disturbed ; 
that it is my purpose, upon the next meeting of Congress, 
to again recommend the adoption of a practical measure 
tendering pecuniary aid to the free acceptance or rejection 
of all the slave States so called, the people whereof may not 
then be in rebellion against the United States, and which 
States may then have voluntarily adopted, or thereafter 
may voluntarily adopt, the immediate or gradual abolish- 
ment of slavery within their respective limits, and that the 
effort to colonise persons of African descent, with their con- 
sent, upon the continent or elsewhere, with the previously- 
obtained consent of the Government existing there, will be 
continued ; that on the first day of January, in the year of 
our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all 
persons held as slaves within any State, or any designated 
part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion 
against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and 
for ever free." When this was followed by the other 
proclamation on New Year's Day 1863, he added these 
words : — "And I hereby enjoin upon the people so declared 
to be free to abstain from all violence, unless in necessary 
self-defence; and I recommend to them that, in all cases 
when allowed, they labour faithfully for reasonable wages. 

" And I further declare and make known that such per- 
sons, of suitable condition, will be received into the armed 
service of the United States, to garrison forts, positions, 
stations, and other places, and to man vessels of all sorts in 
said service. 

"And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of 
justice, warranted by the Constitution upon military neces- 
sity, I invoke the considerate judgment of .mankind, and the 
gracious favour of Almighty God. 



94 NEW WORLD HEROES. 

"In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my name, 
and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed. 

"Done at the City of Washington, the first day of 
January, in the year of our Lord one thousand 
eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the indepen- 
dence of the United States the eighty-seventh. 
" By the President : Abraham Lincoln. 

"William H. Seward, Secretary of State." 

Two days after the issue of the proclamation a large 
body of men assembled in front of the White House with 
music, and called for the President, to congratulate him on 
what he had done. He courteously appeared, and addressed 
a few words to them — "What I did," he said, "I did 
after a very full deliberation, and under a heavy and solemn 
sense of responsibility. 1" can only trust in God I have 
made no mistake." The President remarked to Mr. Colfax, 
the same evening, that the signature appeared somewhat 
tremulous and uneven. "Not," said he, "because of any 
uncertainty or hesitation on my part, but it was just after 
the public reception, and three hours hand-shaking is not 
calculated to improve a man's chirography." Then changing 
his tone, he added — " The South had fair warning that if 
they did not return to their duty I should strike at this 
pillar of their strength. The promise must now be kept, 
and I shall never recall one word." 

How did the slaves themselves receive the news 1 They 
were overwhelmed with joy ; and Mr. Lincoln followed up the 
great kindness by many smaller ones, such as inviting a 
host of coloured Sunday school children to the White House. 
No public testimonial of regard, it is safe to say, gave Mr. 
Lincoln more sincere pleasure during his entire public life 
than that presented by the coloured people of the city of 
Baltimore, in the summer of 1864, consisting of an elegant 
copy of the Holy Bible. The volume was of the usual 






EM A NCIPA TION. 95 

pulpit size, bound in violet-coloured velvet. The corners 
were bands of solid gold, and carved upon a plate also of 
gold, not less than one-fourth of an inch thick. Upon the 
left-hand cover was a design representing the President in a 
cotton-field knocking the shackles off the wrists of a slave, 
who held one hand aloft as if invoking blessings upon the 
head of his benefactor — at whose feet was a scroll, upon 
which was written "Emancipation." Upon the cover was a 
similar plate, bearing the inscription : — 

TO 

gC b v a Ij a m Lincoln* 

President of the United States, the Friend of Universal 

Freedom, 

From the loyal coloured people of Baltimore, as a token of respect 

and gratitude. Baltimore, 4th July 1864. 

The presentation was made by a committee of coloured 
people, consisting of three clergymen and two laymen, who 
were received by the President in the most cordial manner, 
after which the Pev. F. W. Chase, on the part of the com- 
mittee, said : — 

"Mr. President — The loyal coloured people of Baltimore 
have delegated to us the authority to present this Bible, 
as a token of their appreciation of your humane part 
towards the people of our race. While all the nation are 
offering their tributes of respect, we cannot let the occasion 
pass by without tendering ours. Since we have been in- 
corporated in the American family we have been true and 
loyal, and we now stand by ready to defend the country. 
We are ready to be armed and trained in military matters, 
in order to defend and protect the star-spangled banner ! " 

A coloured nurse in one of the hospitals, who had once 
been a slave, prepared, as an expression of love and 
reverence, a collection of wax-fruits, and went with her 



9G NEW WORLD HEROES. 

minister to present it to Mr. Lincoln. In the Anti-Slavery 
Standard the account of the visit was published in her own 
words — "The Commissioner, Mr. Newton, received us 
kindly, and sent the box to the White House, with direc- 
tions that it should not be opened until I came. The next 
day was reception-day, but the President sent me word 
that he would receive me at one o'clock. I went and 
arranged the table, placing it in the centre of the room. 
Then I was introduced to the President and his wife ; he 
stood next to me, then Mrs. Lincoln, Mr. Newton, and the 
minister, the others outside. Mr. Hamilton, the minister, 
made an appropriate speech, and at the conclusion said, 
' Perhaps Mrs. Johnson would like to say a few words 1 ' I 
looked down to the floor and felt that I had not a word to 
say, but after a moment or two the fire began to burn " 
(laying her hand on her breast), " and it burned and burned 
till it went all over me. I think it was the Spirit, and I 
looked up to him and said, ' Mr. President, I believe God 
has hewn you out of a rock, for this great and mighty 
purpose. Many have been led away by bribes of gold, of 
silver, of presents, but you have stood firm, because God 
was with you, and if you are faithful to the end He will be 
with you !' "With his eyes full of tears he walked round and 
examined the present, pronounced it beautiful, thanked me 
kindly, but said, ' You must not give me the praise : it 
belongs to God.'" 

These stories are given in an interesting book by a 
painter, Mr. F. B. Carpenter, called Six months at the 
White House vjith Abraham Lincoln: the Story of a 
Picture. The book gives a pleasing account of the home- 
life of the President, and we are sure our readers will be 
gratified to read some extracts : — 

" My first interview with the President took place at the 
customary Saturday afternoon public reception. Never 
shall I forget the thrill which went through my whole being 



EMANCIPATION. 



97 



as I first caught sight of that tall, gaunt form through a 
distant doorway, bowed down, it seemed to me, even then, 
with the weight of the nation he carried upon his heart, as 
a mother carries her suffering child, and thought of the 
place he held in the affection of the people, and the prayers 
ascending constantly, day after day, in his behalf. The 
crowd was passing through the rooms, and presently it was 
my turn and name to be announced. Greeting me very 
pleasantly, he soon afterwards made an appointment to see 
me in the official chamber directly after the close of the 
* reception.' The hour named found me at the well-remem- 
bered door of the apartment, that door watched daily with 
so many conflicting emotions of hope and fear, by the 
miscellaneous throng gathered there. The President was 
alone and already deep in official business, which was always 
pressing. He received me with the frank kindness and 
simplicity so characteristic of his nature, and after reading 
Mr. Lovejoy's note, said, 'Well, Mr. Carpenter, we will 
turn you in loose here, and try to give you a good chance 
to work out your idea!' . . . The President seemed much 
interested in my work from the first, but as it progressed 
his interest increased. I occupied for a studio the spacious 
'state dining-room' of the White House, in the south- 
western corner of the mansion. He was in the habit of 
bringing many friends in to see what advance I was making 
from day to day. I have known him to come by himself as 
many as three or four times in a single day. It seemed a 
pleasant diversion to him to watch the gradual progress of 
the work, and his suggestions, though sometimes quaint and 
homely, were almost invariably excellent. Seldom was he 
heard to allude to anything which might be construed into 
a personality in connection with any member of the 
Cabinet. On one occasion, however, I remember with a 
sly twinkle of the eye he turned to a senatorial friend 
whom he had brought in to see the picture, and said, ' Mrs. 

b7 



98 NEW WORLD HEROES. 

Lincoln calls Mr. Carpenter's group The Happy Family.'' 
. . . There was a satisfaction to me simply in sitting in the 
room with him, though no words might be uttered, perhaps, 
for long intervals. Apparently absorbed with my pencil, 
and he with his papers, he would sometimes seem to forget 
my presence entirely. It was at such times that I loved to 
study him. Frequently, when persons were admitted on 
business, before entering upon confidential discussions, they 
would turn an inquiring eye upon me, which Mr. Lincoln 
would meet by saying, ' Oh, you need not mind him ; he is 
but a painter ! ' There was never a feeling of restraint or 
constraint on my part ; his personal magnetism was so 
great, to hear him was like getting into the sunshine. As 
I now look back upon these privileged days, my heart is 
stirred with affection for the just and noble man, second 
only to the filial regard due to a parent. It has been my 
fortune to mingle quite freely, in my professional life, with 
many distinguished public men. I have said repeatedly to 
friends, that I never knew one so utterly unconscious of 
distinction or power as Mr. Lincoln. He seemed to forget 
himself in the magnitude of his responsibilities. Under all 
circumstances he was precisely the same — plain, unostenta- 
tious, truth-loving, pure and good. Dr. Stone, his family 
physician in Washington, once said to me, 'I tell you, 
Mr. Lincoln is the purest hearted man I ever saw.'* 11 




CHAPTER XII. 



LIFE AT THE WHITE HOUSE. 




K And when the griefs of life are past, 
And safe in heaven your lot is cast, 
Then you shall see the good and ill 
That human destinies fulfil, 
Though oft in hidden footsteps trod, 
The path that marks the will of God." 

— Blanohard. 

S will be seen from the interesting account of Life 
in the White House, by Mr. Carpenter, the 
painter, Mr. Lincoln had brought the old sin- 
cerity and homeliness of taste into the President's official 
residence. Other biographers tell tales scarcely less inter- 
esting. Mr. Mudge, especially, tells one of John Hanks, 
which he got from his own lips : — 

" Soon after Mr. Lincoln's first inauguration I called at 
the White House, and sent up my name. I trembled a 
little bit, but said to myself, ' Don't I know Abe Lincoln, 
and don't he know John Hanks ? ' Still the thought kept 
crowding into my mind, ' Abe's a long way out of sight of 
John now.' Soon the messenger returned, saying, 'The 
President says, Come up.' I entered the office where Mr. 



100 NEW WORLD HEROES. 

Lincoln was sitting, surrounded, it seemed to me, by all the 
great men of the country. Rising from his seat, and 
stepping forth to meet me, he seized my extended hand 
with both of his, exclaiming, 'John, I'm glad to see you. 
How do you do 1 How is your family 1 ' It was the 
welcome of other years, and I forgot that he was President, 
and replied, ' I'm pretty well, I thank you, Abe : how's 
you rfolks 1 ' After we had chatted a while, he asked me 
to come again, and I did call upon him several times, and 
he never seemed to feel above his old friend of the Illinois 
log-cabin." 

Mr. Lincoln on one occasion invited a former friend and 
his wife to take a drive in the presidential carriage, which, 
naturally, was gladly accepted. 

" Must I wear gloves ? " asked the friend. 

" Oh, yes, of course you must," replied his wife. 

"But we never used to do so in the old days, unless 
because the weather was cold." 

" But things are different now. You must wear gloves 
out of respect to the President." 

" Lincoln used not to like them any better than I. How- 
ever, I suppose I must put them on." 

At the same time the President was asking Mrs. Lincoln, 
" Must I wear gloves 1 " 

" Yes, I think you had better." 

" I'll put a pair in my pocket, and we will see." 

When they were seated in the carriage, Mr. Lincoln 
began slyly to pull his gloves on, and his friend just as 
quietly to pull his off. It was too absurd ; and as soon as 
each saw what the other was doing, both burst into a 
hearty laugh; and they had their drive in an ungloved 
condition. 

When the President could get a little respite he was 
always glad to do so. " He entered the White House a 
healthy man, with a frame of iron, and without indulgence 



LIFE AT THE WHITE HOUSE. 101 

in a single debilitating vice, he became a feeble man, weary- 
worn beyond the reach of rest." But he was fond of music 
and singing, and often found relief in story-telling. 

Carpenter says that once a man known as " Jeems Pipes 
of Pipesville" begged Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln to give him 
half-an-hour in their presence to go through his performance. 
The man gave comic illustrations of various characters, and 
among the rest that of a stammering man, which greatly 
amused Mr. Lincoln. At the close the President told him 
that he had once known a stammering man who whistled 
with his stammering, and advised Pipes to add that touch 
of nature to his performance. Pipes practised it several 
times, trying to imitate the whistle as performed by the 
President, and then went away greatly delighted. 

Sometimes the determination of Mr. Lincoln to have his 
bit of fun annoyed those who came to him on serious 
business. A Congressman once went to him, and Lincoln 
began, as usual, to tell him an amusing story. 

"Mr. President," said his visitor, warmly, "I did not 
come hear to listen to stories. The times are too serious for 
that." Lincoln at once became grave. "My dear sir," he 
said, " do you suppose that I do not feel the gravity of the 
situation as deeply as you 1 I assure you the trouble is with 
me night and day; but if I did not sometimes find vent 
I should die." 

The fact is that he took his fun as other over-burdened 
statesmen take their wine, and it helped him, if not in the 
same, in a better way. 

It is said that when he had prepared the draft of the 
Emancipation proclamation, and had the members of the 
Cabinet together, that he might read it to them, he com- 
menced proceedings by reading a chapter of Artemus 
Ward: and when he had read it, he went on with the 
solemn business in hand. 

When General Grant came into chief command of the 



102 NEW WORLD HEROES. 

armies, Mr. Stanton, the Secretary of War, at their first 
interview, could not agree with him as to the number of 
troops to be left for the defence of Washington, while the 
main army marched on Richmond. A correspondent of the 
New York Herald thus gives the conversation, and the 
happy turn given to the dispute between the high officials : — 

"Well, General," remarked the Secretary, "I suppose 
you have left enough men to strongly garrison the forts 
round Washington ? " 

"No," said Grant, coolly, "I couldn't do that." 

" Why not ? " cried Stanton, nervously ; " whv not ? why 
not?" 

"Because I have already sent the men to the front," 
replied Grant, calmly. 

"That won't do," cried Stanton, more nervously than 
before. " It's contrary to my plans. I can't allow it. I'll 
order the men back." 

" I shall need the men there, and you can't order them 
back," answered Grant. 

"Why not?" inquired Stanton, again. "Why not? 
why not ? " 

" I believe that I rank the Secretary in this matter," was 
the quiet reply. 

•" Very well," said Stanton, a little warmly, " we'll see 
the President about that. I'll have to take you to the 
President." 

"That's right," politely observed Grant. "The Presi- 
dent ranks us both." 

Arrived at the White House, the General and Secretary 
asked to see the President upon important business, and in 
a few moments the good-natured face of Mr. Lincoln 
appeared. 

"Well, gentlemen," said the President, "what do you 
want of me ? " 

" General," said Stanton, stiffly, " state your case." 



LIFE AT THE WHITE HOUSE. 103 

" I have no case to state," replied General Grant. " I 
am satisfied as it is ; " thus outflanking the Secretary, and 
displaying the same strategy in diplomacy as in war. 

" Well, well," said the President, laughing, " state your 
case, Secretary." 

Secretary Stanton obeyed ; General Grant said nothing ; 
the President listened very attentively. When Stanton had 
concluded, the President crossed his legs, rested his elbow 
on his knee, twinkled his eyes quaintly, and said, " Now, 
Secretary, you know we have been trying to manage this 
army for two years and a-half, and you know we hav'n't 
done much with it. We sent over the mountains and 
brought Mister Grant, as Mrs. Grant calls him, to manage 
it for us, and now I guess we had better let Mister Grant 
have his own way." 

A German paper publishes the following : — " A lieutenant, 
whom debts compelled to leave the Fatherland and the 
service of his country, succeeded in being admitted to 
President Lincoln, and by reason of his commendable and 
winning deportment, together with his intelligent appearance, 
was promised a lieutenant's commission in a cavalry regi- 
ment. He was so enraptured with his success that he deemed 
it his duty to inform the President that he belonged to one 
of the oldest families of the nobility of Germany. * Oh, 
never mind that,' said Mr. Lincoln ; « you will not find that 
to be an obstacle in the way of your promotion. ' ' 

Mr. Lincoln's kindness of heart showed itself in many 
ways. A young man had been sentenced to be shot for 
falling asleep at his post as a sentinel. Mr. Lincoln was 
to sign the death warrant. 

"How many hours has this young man been on duty?" 
he asked. 

" He was on duty some time, sir, for he had relieved 
a friend who was ill. But nothing can excuse so great a 
fault as sleeping at his post," 



104 NEW WORLD HEROES. 

" I shall pardon him," said the President. " I could not 
think of going into eternity with the blood of the young 
man on my skirts. It is not to be wondered at that a boy 
raised on a farm, probably going to bed at dark, should, 
when required to watch all night, fall asleep ; and I cannot 
consent to shoot him for such an act." 

So the young man was pardoned ; but Mr. Lincoln 
thought so much about him that he became nervous lest, 
after all, through some mistake, the pardon should not find 
its way to the proper authorities in time to stay execution, 
and he could not sleep that night until some one had been 
sent to see that all was right. 

The gratitude of the young man was proved in a very 
pathetic manner. He fought in the battle of Fredericks- 
burg, and was found among the slain. When the body was 
examined it was discovered that he was wearing next his 
heart a photograph of his friend and preserver, and 
underneath were written the words " God bless President 
Lincoln" 

The Rev. Newman Hall was told a story by an officer to 
the effect that twenty-four deserters had been tried by court- 
martial, and sentenced to be shot. Lincoln refused to sign 
the warrant for their execution. The officer then went to 
Washington himself to try to prevail on the President. 

" It will not do to forgive those men," he said. 

" It will not do to shoot them," said the President. 

" Mr. President, unless these men are made an example 
of, the army itself is in danger. Mercy to the few is cruelty 
to the many," pleaded the officer. 

But Lincoln replied, " Mr. General, there are already too 
many weeping widows in the United States. For God's 
sake don't ask me to add to the number, for I won't 
do it." 

In the midst of his kindliness, his love of fun was 
constantly creeping up. A friend from Illinois once called 



LIFE AT THE WIIITE I10USE. 105 

to plead for a neighbour. On the march he had fallen out 
of the ranks, and entered a drinking saloon. There he 
stayed, indulging his taste for liquor, until his regiment had 
left the town. Failing to join it at the proper time, he was 
sentenced to be shot as a deserter. 

" He may as well be pardoned," said Lincoln ; " I guess 
he will do us more good above the ground than under the 
ground." 

He took the order to sign the pardon, but the table was 
so full of papers of all kinds that he could find no room. 

"By-the-by," he said, "do you know how the Pata- 
gonians manage about their oysters 1 They open them, and 
throw the shells out of the window, until the pile gets 
higher than the house, and then they move." 

Having told the story, he signed the pardon, and sent the 
man away rejoicing. 

Holland says : — " Yet Mr. Lincoln could be severe. 
Towards crimes resulting from sudden anger, or untoward 
circumstances, or sharp temptations — the long catalogue of 
vices growing out of human weakness — towards these he 
was always lenient ; but towards a cool, calculating crime 
against the race, or any member of it, from ambitious or 
mercenary motives, he was severe. The systematic, heart- 
less oppression of one man by another man always aroused 
his indignation to the highest pitch. An incident occurred 
soon after his inauguration which forcibly illustrates this 
point. The Hon. John B. Alley of Lynn, Massachusetts, 
was made the bearer to the President of a petition for 
pardon, by a person confined in the Newbury port jail, for 
being engaged in the slave trade. He had been sentenced 
to five years' imprisonment, and the payment of a fine of 
one thousand dollars. The petition was accompanied by a 
letter to Mr. Alley, in which the prisoner acknowledged his 
guilt, and the justice of his sentence. He was very 
penitent — at least on paper — and had received the full 



106 NEW WORLD HEROES. 

measure of his punishment so far as it related to the term 
of his imprisonment ; hut he was still held because he could 
not pay his fine. Mr. Alley read the letter to the President, 
who was much moved by its pathetic appeals, and when he 
had himself read the petition, he looked up, and said, * My 
friend, that is a very touching appeal to our feelings. You 
know my weakness is to be, if possible, too easily moved by 
appeals for mercy, and if this man were guilty of the foulest 
murder that the arm of man could perpetrate, I might 
forgive him on such an appeal ; but the man who could go 
to Africa, and rob her of her children, and sell them into 
interminable bondage, with no other motive than that which 
is furnished by dollars and cents, is so much worse than the 
most depraved murderer, that he can never receive pardon 
at my hands. No ! He may rot in jail before he shall 
have liberty by any act of mine.' A sudden crime, com- 
mitted under strong temptation, was venial in his eyes, on 
evidence of repentance ; but the calculating, mercenary 
crime of man-stealing and man-selling, with all the cruelties 
that are essential accompaniments of the business, could 
v/in from him, as an officer of the people, no pardon." 

Mr. Lincoln had not only the troubles of state to bear, 
but his own domestic griefs as well ; and in February 1862 
he had a very severe one. Sickness entered his house. 
Both Willie and "Tad" were ill ; and as his children were 
very dear to him, this added trouble perplexed and distressed 
him greatly. A good Christian lady of Massachusetts, who 
was giving her services in one of the hospitals, went to the 
White House to help Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln in nursing the 
children. She said afterwards that Mr. Lincoln often 
watched with her, and this gave her an opportunity of 
speaking to him. 

He was always patient when people exhorted him, but he 
took the few serious words of this lady better than some 
from other people. It is reported that once when a minister 



LIFE AT THE WHITE HOUiSE. 107 

was introduced, he provided him a seat, and sitting opposite, 
said, "Now, sir, I am ready to hear what you have to 
say." 

" Oh, bless you, sir," said the minister, " I have nothing 
special to say ; I merely called to pay my respects to you, 
and, as one of the million, to assure you of my hearty 
sympathy and support." 

" My dear sir," said the President, rising with a sigh of 
relief, " I am very glad to see you indeed ; / thought you 
had come to preach to me." 

But he did not mind being preached to sometimes. 

He said to the lady who was nursing his children, " This 
is the hardest trial of my life ; why is it 1 why is it 1 " 

The lady did not know that she could do better than tell 
Mr. Lincoln a little of her own history. 

" I used to ask, ' How is it 1 ' when my troubles came," 
she said. 

"Ah, you have had troubles like the rest of us, I 
suppose." 

"Yes, indeed, very sore troubles. I am a widow, and 
have two children in heaven. But I have seen the hand 
of God in it all, and can say that I never loved or trusted 
Him so much as since my affliction." 

" But how was that brought about 1 " 

" Simply by trusting in God, and feeling that He does all 
things well," she replied. 

" Did you submit fully under the first loss 1 " he asked. 

" No, not wholly," she replied ; " but as blow came upon 
blow, and all was taken, I could and did submit, and was 
very happy." 

"I am glad to hear you say that," responded the Pre- 
sident ; " your experience will help me to bear my 
afflictions." 

If sympathy could have helped the President he would 
have been helped ; but there are some troubles that are too 



108 NEW WORLD HEROES. 

great for anything human to alleviate ; only God can bind 
up a bruised and broken heart. Willie Lincoln died. The 
Cabinet addressed these words to Congress : — " The Presi- 
dent of the United States was last evening plunged into 
affliction by the death of a beloved child. The heads of 
departments, in consideration of this distressing event, have 
thought it would be agreeable to Congress, and to the 
American people, that the official and private buildings 
occupied by them should not be illuminated on the evening 
of the twenty-second." 

It was a time of joy, but the President and the people 
were full of sorrow. Willie Wallace Lincoln was buried in 
a vault in the Oak-Hill Cemetery at Georgetown ; but the 
funeral services were conducted at the White House. His 
friends were allowed to pass through and take a last look 
at him. He was dressed in his accustomed jacket and 
trousers, with white stockings and low shoes, and white 
collar and wristband turned over his dark jacket. A 
wreath of flowers was on his breast, and in his hand a 
beautiful bouquet of camelias, while his body was covered 
with azalias and sprigs of mignonette. There were present 
Members of the Cabinet, Foreign Ministers, Members of 
Congress, Officers of the Army and Navy, and many 
citizens and ladies. The Rev. Dr. Gurley, the President's 
chaplain, performed the service in a very impressive manner. 
The President said some time afterwards to a friend, " Since 
Willie's death I catch myself every day involuntarily talking 
with him, as if he were with me." 

That the loss of his child was blessed and sanctified to 
him there can be no doubt. The author of The Forest 
Boy says, that when a gentleman was going on business 
to the White House, a number of Christian friends said to 
him, " We want you to ask Mr. Lincoln if he loves Jesus." 
He promised that he would do so. When he had finished 
his interview with the President, he said, "At the soli- 



LIFE AT THE WHITE HOUSE. 109 

citation of some Christian friends, I have a question to 
propose to you, if you will allow me, Mr. Lincoln." 
" Certainly," was the courteous reply. 
11 It is this : — l Do you love Jesus ? ' " 
The President burst into tears, buried his face in his 
handkerchief, and for a time was unable to speak. At 
length he said, "When I left Springfield I said to my 
fellow-citizens, ' Pray for me,' but I was not then a 
Christian. When my child died my heart was still rebel- 
lious against God. But when I walked the battle-field of 
Gettysburg, and saw the wounded and the dying, and felt 
that by that victory our cause was saved, I then and there 
resolved, and gave my heart to Jesus. / do love Jesus." 

On 19th November 1863 the Gettysburg Cemetery was 
opened, and on that occasion Mr. Lincoln said — 

" Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought 
forth upon this Continent a new nation, conceived in 
liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are 
created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, 
testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and 
dedicated, can endure. We are met on a great battle-field of 
that war. We are met to dedicate a portion of it as the final 
resting-place of those who here gave their lives that a nation 
might live. It is altogether fitting and proper to do this. 

" But in a larger sense we cannot dedicate, we cannot 
consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, 
living or dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it far 
above my power to add or detract. The world will little 
note or long remember what we say here. It is for us, the 
living rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work 
that they have so nobly carried on. It is rather for us to 
be dedicated here to the great task remaining before us — 
that from these honoured dead we take increased devotion 
to the cause for which they died, resolved that the dead 
shall not have died in vain ; that the nation shall, under 



110 NEW WORLD HEROES. 

God, have a new birth of freedom, and that the government 
of the people, by the people, and for the people, shall not 
perish from the earth. ' 

Mr. Carpenter tells of a poem of which the President was 
?ery fond, and which he had learnt by heart. We give 
Ihe first and last stanzas — 

" Oh, why should the spirit of mortal be proud ? 
Like a fast-flitting meteor, a fast flyiug cloud, 
A flash of the lightning, a break of the wave, 
He passes from life to his rest in the grave. 

"Tis the twink of an eye, 'tis the draught of a breath, 
From the blossom of health to the paleness of death, 
From the gilded saloon to the bier and the shroud : 
Oh, why should the spirit of mortal be proud ? " 

To Mrs. Gurney, the widow of the London banker, and 
well-known friend and philanthropist, Mr. Lincoln wrote : — 
" My esteemed friend, I have not forgotten, never shall for- 
get, the very impressive occasion when you and your friends 
visited me on a Sabbath forenoon two years ago. Nor had 
your kind letter, written nearly a year later, ever been for- 
gotten. In all it has been your purpose to strengthen my 
reliance upon God. I am much indebted to the good Chris- 
tian people of the country for their constant prayers and 
consolations, and to none more than to yourself. The pur- 
poses of the Almighty are perfect, and must prevail, though 
we erring mortals may fail accurately to perceive this in 
advance. We hoped for a happy termination of this terrible 
war before this ; but God knows best, and has ruled other- 
wise. We shall yet acknowledge His wisdom, and our own 
errors therein ; meanwhile we must work earnestly in the 
best lights He gives us, trusting that so working still con- 
duces to the great end He ordains. Surely He intends 
some great good to follow this mighty commotion, which no 
mortal could make, and no mortal could stay." 

More and more Abraham Lincoln was learning to trust 



LIFE AT THE WHITE HOUSE. Ill 

in God. He spent an hour every morning in reading the 
Scriptures and in prayer. Once, when a great battle was 
in progress, he said, " I have done all that I could. There 
is nothing that I can do." 

" Yes," said a lady, " you can pray." 

He went away to his own room ; and while he was tiiere, 
a telegram, came to say that a Union victory had been 
won. He came into the room crying, " Good news ! Good 
news ! The victory is ours. God is good." " Nothing 
like prayer," suggested the lady. "Yes," said Lincoln, 
"there is praise : prayer and praise." 

Dr. Brockett gives the account of the daily routine of 
the life at the White House in the narrative of " One who 
Knew ": — " Mr. Lincoln is an early riser, and he is thus able 
to devote two or three hour3 each morning to his voluminous 
private correspondence, besides glancing at a city paper. 
At nine he breakfasts ; then walks over to the War Office, 
to read such war telegrams as they give him (occasionally 
some are withheld), and to have a chat with General 
Hallick on the military situation, in which he takes a 
great interest. Returning to the White House, he goes 
through with his morning's mail, in company with a private 
secretary, who makes a minute of the reply which he is to 
make, and others the President retains that he may answer 
them himself. Every letter receives attention, and ail 
which are entitled to a reply receive one, no matter how 
they are worded, or how inelegant the chirography may be. 

" Tuesdays and Fridays are Cabinet days, but on other 
days visitors at the White House are requested to wait in 
the ante-room, and send in their cards. Sometimes before 
the President has finished reading his mail, Louis will have 
a handful of pasteboard, and from the cards laid before 
him Mr. Lincoln has visitors ushered in, giving precedence 
to acquaintances. Three or four hours do they pour in, in 
rapid succession, nine out of ten asking offices, and patiently 



112 NEW WORLD HEROES. 

does the President listen to their application. Care and 
anxiety have furrowed his rather homely features, yet 
occasionally he is reminded of an anecdote, and good- 
humoured glances beam from his clear grey eyes, while his 
ringing laugh shows that he is not 'used up' yet. The 
simple and natural manner in which he delivers his thoughts 
make him appear to those visiting him like an earnest, 
affectionate friend. He makes little parade of his legal 
science, and rarely indulges in speculative propositions, but 
states his ideas in plain Anglo-Saxon, illuminated by many 
lively images and pleasing allusions, which seem to flow as 
if in obedience to a restless impulse of nature. Some news- 
paper admirer attempts to deny that the President tells 
stories. Why, it is rarely that anyone is in his company 
for five minutes without hearing a good tale appropriate to 
the subject talked about. Many a metaphysical argument 
does he demolish by simply telling an anecdote, which 
exactly overturns the verbal structure. 

"About four o'clock the President declines seeing any 
more company, and often accompanies his wife in her 
carriage to take a drive. He is fond of horseback exercise. 
The President dines at six, and it is rare that some personal 
friends do not grace the round dining-table, where he throws 
off the cares of office, and reminds those who have been in 
Kentucky of the old-school gentleman who used to dispense 
generous hospitality there. From the dinner-table the 
party retire to the crimson drawing-room, where coffee is 
served, and where the President passes the evening, unless 
some dignitary has a special interview. Such is the almost 
unvarying life of Abraham Lincoln, whose administration 
will rank next in importance to that of Washington in our 
national annals." 



CHAPTER XIII. 



RE-ELECTED. 



" Not lightly fall beyond recall 

The written scrolls a breath can float ; 
The crowning fact, the kingliest act 
Of freedom, is the freeman's vote. 

So shall our voice of sovereign choice 
Swell the deep bass of duty done, 

And strike the key of time to be, 

When God and man shall speak au one. 



-Whittier. 




SHALL never be glad again," said Abraham 
Lincoln to a lady who waited upon him for six 
days, to persuade him to give an order for the 
erection of hospitals in the North. But when he said that, 
he was thinking of the dead soldiers whose lives had been 
poured out as water. Other things there were that 
certainly gave him pleasure, and among them was the fact 
that from the working men of England came addresses of 
sympathy and confidence. England's sufferings were only 
second to those of America during the long war, which 
deprived the Lancashire mills of cotton, and made hundreds 
of thousands idle, and plunged nearly half the homes of 
England into poverty and distress. Yet so clearly did the 

b 8 



114 NEW WORLD HEROES. 

people understand that this was no fault of the wise and 
kindly, but hard-pressed President, that the working men of 
Manchester sent him words of cheer. He said, among other 
things, in reply — " I know and deeply deplore the sufferings 
which the working men of Manchester and in all Europe 
are called to endure in this crisis. It has been often and 
studiously represented that the attempt to overthrow this 
Government, which was built upon the foundation of 
human rights, and to substitute for it one which should rest 
exclusively on the basis of human slavery, was likely to 
obtain the favour of Europe. Through the action of our 
loyal citizens, the working men of Europe have been 
subjected to severe trial, for the purpose of forcing their 
sanction to that attempt. Under the circumstances I cannot 
but regard your decisive utterances upon the question as an 
instance of sublime Christian heroism, which has not been 
surpassed in any age or in any country. It is indeed an 
energetic and reinspiring assurance of the inherent power of 
truth, and of the ultimate and universal triumph of justice, 
humanity, and freedom. I do not doubt that the sentiments 
you have expressed will be sustained by your great nation ; 
and, on the other hand, I have no hesitation in assuring you 
that they will excite admiration, esteem, and the most 
reciprocal feelings of friendship among the American people. 
I hail this interchange of sentiment, therefore, as an augury 
that whatever else may happen, whatever misfortune may 
befall your country or my own, the peace and friendship 
which now exist between the two nations will be, as it shall 
be my desire to make them, perpetual. 

"Abraham Lincoln." 

The working men of London held a similar meeting about 
the same time, and took substantially the same action. 
The I resident made the following response to their 
address : — 



RE-ELECTED. 115 

" Executive Mansion, Washington, 2nd Jfeb. 18(53. 
** To the Working Men of London — 

" I have received the New Year's Address which you have 
scut me, with a sincere appreciation of the exalted and 
humane sentiments by which it was inspired. 

"As these sentiments are manifestly the enduring 
support of the free institutions of England, so I am sure 
also that they constitute the only reliable basis for free 
institutions throughout the world. 

" The resources, advantages, and powers of the American 
people are very great, and they have consequently succeeded 
to equally great responsibilities. It seems to have devolved 
upon them to test whether a Government established on the 
principles of human freedom can be maintained against an 
effort to build one upon the exclusive foundation of human 
bondage. They will rejoice with me in the new evidences 
which your proceedings furnish, that the magnanimity they 
exhibit is justly estimated by the true friends of freedom 
and humanity in foreign countries. 

"Accept my best wishes for your individual welfare, 
and for the welfare and happiness of the whole British 
people. 

"Abraham Lincoln." 

In connection with England, an amusing story, culled 
from Carpenter's book, may here be given : — 

"Upon the betrothal of the Prince of Wales to the 
Princess Alexandra, Queen Victoria sent a letter to each of 
the European sovereigns, and also to President Lincoln, 
announcing the fact. Lord Lyons, her ambassador at 
Washington, requested an audience of Mr. Lincoln, that he 
might present the document in person. At the time 
appointed he was received at the White House, in company 
with Mr. Seward. 

" 'May it please your Excellency,' said Lord Lyons, 'I 



116 NEW WORLD HEROES. 

hold in my hand an autograph letter from my royal mistress, 
Queen Victoria, which I have been commanded to present 
to your Excellency. In it she informs your Excellency that 
her son, His E-oyal Highness the Prince of Wales, is about 
to contract a matrimonial alliance with Her Royal Highness 
the Princess Alexandra of Denmark.' 

" After continuing in this strain for a few minutes, Lord 
Lyons tendered the letter to the President, and awaited his 
reply. It was short, simple, and expressive, and must have 
astonished the ambassador (who was a bachelor), for it 
consisted of these words, ' Lord Lyons, go thou arid do 
likewise. 7 " 

Mr. Carpenter wonders what success he met with in 
putting the reply in diplomatic words when he reported it to 
Her Majesty. 

The year 1864 was a very remarkable one in the annals 
of the United States. It became evident, when the year 
had only half passed, that, in regard to the election of a 
President, which had in due course now to be made, the 
people were already resolved. 

A great convention was held at Baltimore, at which a 
ballot was taken, the result of which proved that Lincoln 
was again the choice of the people. The chairman went to 
Washington to tell the President, and he replied : — 

" Having served four years in the depth of a great and 
yet unended national peril, I can view this call to a second 
term in nowise more nattering to myself than as an expres- 
sion of the public judgment that I may better finish a 
difficult work, in which I have laboured from the first, than 
could any one less severely schooled to the task. In this 
view, and with assured reliance on that Almighty Ruler 
who has so graciously sustained us thus far, and with 
increased gratitude to the generous people for their continued 
confidence, I accept the renewed trust, with its yet onerous 
and perplexing duties and responsibilities." 



RE-ELECTED. 117 

But between the writing of this letter and the election 
there came a trial to Mr. Lincoln. He did not approve a 
bill which Congress brought forward, and this roused part 
of the press to very offensive attacks. 

Mr. Horace Greeley wrote to Mr Lincoln to say that two 
ambassadors were in Canada, with powers from the South 
to negotiate a peace \ and Lincoln replied, " If you can find 
any person anywhere, professing to have any proposition of 
Jefferson Davis in writing, embracing the restoration of the 
Union and abandonment of slavery, whatever else it 
embraces, say to him that he may come to me with you." 
He also wrote the following letter : — 

'•Executive Mansion, Washington, 18th July 1864. 

11 TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN : — 

" Any proposition which embraces the restoration of peace, 
the integrity of the whole Union, and the abandonment of 
slavery, and which comes by and with an authority that 
can control the armies now at war against the United 
States, will be received and considered by the Executive 
Government of the United States, and will be met on liberal 
terms, on substantial and collateral points ; and the bearer 
or bearers thereof shall have safe-conduct both ways. 

"Abraham Lincoln." 

Some of Lincoln's friends were uneasy lest the best that 
could be done was not done; but he said to a deputation 
from Maryland : — 

" Something said by the Secretary of State, in his recent 
speech at Auburn, has been construed by some into a threat 
that, if I shall be beaten at the election, I will, between 
then and the constitutional end of my term, do what I may 
be able to ruin the Government. Others regard the fact 
that the Chicago Convention adjourned not sine die, but to 
moot again, if called to do so by a particular individual, as 



118 NEW WOULD HEROES. 

the intimation of a purpose that, if their nominee shall be 
elected, he will at once seize control of the Government. I 
hope the good people will permit themselves to suffer no 
uneasiness on either point. I am struggling to maintain the 
Government, not to overthrow it. I am struggling especially 
to prevent others from overthrowing it. I therefore say, 
that, if I live, I shall remain President until the fourth of 
next March, and that whoever shall be constitutionally 
elected in November shall be duly installed as President on 
the fourth of March ; and, in the interval, I shall do my 
utmost that whoever is to hold the helm for the next 
voyage shall start with the best possible chance of saving 
the ship." 

The presidential election took place on the 8th November 
1864, and resulted in the triumph of Mr. Lincoln in every 
loyal State except Kentucky, New Jersey, and Delaware. 
In some of the States their soldiers in the field were allowed 
to vote, and the military vote was almost invariably cast 
for Lincoln and Johnson. The official returns for the entire 
vote polled summed up 4,034,789. Of these Mr. Lincoln 
received 2,223,035, and Mr. M'Clellan received 1,811,754, 
leaving a majority of 411,281 on the popular vote. Mr. 
Lincoln was elected by a plurality in 1860. In 1864 his 
majority was decided and unmistakable. 

Of course Mr. Lincoln was gratified. "lam thankful to 
God for this approval of the people," said he on the night 
of his election, to a band of Pennsylvanians who had called 
upon him ; and he added, " But while deeply grateful for 
this mark of their confidence in me, if I know my heart, my 
gratitude is free from any taint of personal triumph. I do 
not impugn the motives of any one opposed to me. It is 
no pleasure to me to triumph over any one; but I give 
thanks to the Almighty for this evidence of the people's 
resolution to stand by free government and the rights of 
humanity." A German soldier said — "I goes for Fader 



RE-ELECTED. 119 

Abraham ; he likes the soldier boy. Ven he sei ves tree 
years, he gives him four hundred dollars, and re-enlists him 
von veteran. Now, Fader Abraham, he serve four years. 
We re-enlist him for four years more, and make von veteran 
of him." 

Congratulations poured in upon him from all quarters. 
There was a pressure upon him, almost greater than he 
could sustain; but he found time in the midst of all the 
excitement to write the following : — 

" Executive Mansion, Washington, 21st Nov. 1864. 

" Dear Madam — I have been shown, on the files of the 
War Department, a statement of the Adjutant-General of 
Massachusetts, that you are the mother of five sons who 
have died gloriously on the field of battle. I feel how weak 
and fruitless must be any words of mine which should 
attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so over- 
whelming. But I cannot refrain from tendering to you 
the consolation that may be found in the thanks of the 
Republic they have died to save. I pray that our Heavenly 
Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and 
leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, 
and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so 
costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom. 

" Yours very sincerely and respectfully, 

"Abraham Lincoln. 

" To Mrs. Brixby, Boston, Massachusetts." 

A clergyman once said to the President that he hoped 
" the Lord was on our side." Lincoln replied, " I am not 
at all concerned about that, for I know that the Lord is 
always on the side of the right. But it is my constant 
anxiety and prayer that I and this nation should be on the 
Lord's side." 



120 NEW WORLD HEROES. 

It seemed that at last He who was on the side of the 
right was about to send peace again. The crisis had come. 
Mr. Lincoln was himself in a tent at City Point, on the 
James' River, and he telegraphed the results of the battles 
as news were brought to him. The strain upon his nervous 
system was very great ; but he found some relief in tending 
a cat and a family of kittens that had just been born. On 
Monday morning, 3rd April, the news came that the rebels 
had left Richmond, and that the Union forces were occu- 
pying the city. He started to go, but paused — " Little 
kitten," he said, taking up one of the tiny creatures, "I 
must perform a last act of kindness for you before I go. I 
must open your eyes ; " and this he did as tenderly as a 
woman could have done it. When the kitten blinkingly 
looked around in wonder, he said, " Oh, that I could open 
the eyes of my blinded fellow-countrymen as easily as I 
have those of that little creature." 

On the same afternoon, 3rd April, Mr. Lincoln, attended 
by his son " Tad," who held his father's hand in awe and 
wonder, visited the city of Richmond. The visit is thus 
described by 0. 0. Ooppin, Esq., in the Atlantic Monthly : — 
"There was no committee of reception, no guard of honour, 
no grand display of troops, no assembling of an eager multi- 
tude to welcome him. He entered the city unheralded. 
Six sailors, armed with carabines, stepped upon the shore, 
followed by the President, who held his little son by the 
hand, and Admiral Porter; the officers followed, and six 
more sailors brought up the rear. There were forty or fifty 
freed-men, who had been sole possessors of themselves for 
twenty-four hours, at work on the bank of the Canal, 
securing some floating timber, under the direction of a 
lieutenant. Somehow they obtained the information that 
the man who was head and shoulders taller than all others 
around him, with features large and irregular, with a mild 
eye and pleasant countenance, was President Lincoln. 



RE-ELECTED. 121 

" ' God bless you, sah ! ' said one, taking oil' his cap, and 
bowing very low. 

"'Hurrah! Hurrah! President Linkum hab come!' 
was the shout which rang through the streets. 

" The lieutenant found himself without command. What 
cared those freed-men, fresh from the house of bondage, for 
floating timber and military commands? Their deliverer 
had come — he who next to the Lord Jesus was their best 
friend. It was not a hurrah that they gave, but a wild, 
jubilant cry of inexpressible joy. 

"They gathered round the President, ran ahead, hovered 
upon the flanks of the little company, and hung like a dark 
cloud upon the rear. Men, women, and children joined the 
constantly-increasing throng. They came from all the by- 
streets, running in breathless haste, shouting, hallooing, and 
dancing with delight. The men threw up their hats ; the 
women waved their bonnets and handkerchiefs, clapped their 
hands, and sang — ' Glory be to God ! glory, glory, glory ! ' 
rendering all the praise to God who had heard their wailings 
in the past, their moaning for wives, husbands, children, 
and friends sold out of their sight, had given them freedom, 
and, after long years of waiting, had permitted them thus 
unexpectedly to behold the face of their great benefactor. 

" ' I thank you, dear Jesus, that I behold President 
Linkum ! ' was the exclamation of a woman who stood upon 
the threshold of her humble home ; and with streaming eyes 
and clasped hands gave thanks aloud to the Saviour of 
men. 

" Another, more demonstrative in her joy, was jumping 
and striking her hands with all her might, crying, 'Bless 
de Lord, bless de Lord, bless de Lord ! ' as if there could be 
no end of her thanksgiving. 

" The air rang with a tumultuous chorus of voices. The 
streets became almost impassable on account of the increas- 
ing multitude. Soldiers were summoned to clear the wav. 



122 NEW WORLD HEROES. 

How strange the event ! The President of the United 
States — he who had been hated, despised, maligned above 
all other men living — to whom the vilest epithets had been 
applied by the people of Richmond — was walking their 
streets, receiving their thanksgiving, blessings, and prayers 
from thousands who hailed him as an ally of the 
Messiah. 

. . . "Abraham Lincoln was walking in their streets; 
and, worst of all, that plain, honest-hearted man was 
recognising the 'niggers' as human beings by returning 
their salutations ! The walk was long, and the President 
halted a moment to rest. ' May de good Lord bless you, 
President Linkum ! ' said an old negro, removing his hat, 
and bowing, with tears of joy rolling down his cheeks. The 
President removed his own hat and bowed in silence ; but 
it was a bow that upset the forms, laws, customs, and 
ceremonies of centuries. It was a death-shock to chivalry, 
and a mortal wound to caste. Recognise a nigger ! Fau^h ! 
A woman in an adjoining house beheld it, and turned from 
the scene in unspeakable disgust. There were men in the 
crowd who had daggers in their eyes, but the chosen assassin 
was not there, the hour for the damning work had not come, 
and that great-hearted man passed on to the Executive 
Mansion of the Confederacy. 

" Want of space compels us to pass over other scenes — 
the visit of the President to the State House ; the jubilant 
shouts of the crowd ; the rush of f reed-men into the Capitol 
grounds, where, till the appearance of their deliverer, they 
had never been permitted to enter; the ride of the President 
through the streets ; his visit to Libby Prison ; the distri- 
bution of bread to the destitute, etc." 

Mrs. Lincoln went the next day to see the city, and 
Lincoln held important interviews with Judge Campbell 
and others. He also had a drive round the city, and visited 
General Weitzel's headquarters. But he was anxious to 



RE-ELECTED. 



123 



<*ex, back to Washington, because during his absence Mr. 
Seward, the Secretary of State, had met with a serious 
accident, and was confined to his bed. Mr. Lincoln went 
to him, and after kind words of sympathy, he threw himself 
across the bed, and rehearsed the story of Grant's wonderful 
generalship, the bravery of the soldiers, their success, 
Richmond's fall, and the vigorous pursuit of Lee, which 
was then going on. At the close of his narration he said, 
" Now for a day of National Thanksgiving ! " 




CHAPTER XIV. 



PEACE AND VICTORY. 



' Hushed to-day are sounds of gladness, 

From the mountains to the sea ; 
And the plaintive voice of sadness 

Rises, mighty God, to Thee. 

Freedom claimed another martyr, 

Heaven received another saint ; 
Who are we Thy will to question ? 

Lord, we weep without complaint." 

— Phebe A. Hanaforb. 




J? the morning of the 14th of April 1865 a Cabinet 
Council was held, and no one thought that the 
President had awoke to spend his last day on 
earth. The whole nation was given up to rejoicing. On 
the eleventh there had been an impromptu gathering of the 
masses before the White House, and every face seemed 
lighted with hope and happiness. But the fourteenth was 
Good Friday, and the peace rejoicings were to be on a large 
scale. Four years ago that day the war had commenced, 
and now it was virtually at an end. 

At the Cabinet meeting rather a singular incident 
occurred. 



PEACE AND VICTORY. 125 

"Have you heard from General Sherman?" asked the 
President of General Grant. 

"No, but I am hourly expecting to hear, and I hope he 
will tell me that Johnston has surrendered." 

" "Well," said the President, " you will hear very soon 
now, and the news will be important." 

" Why do you think so % " inquired Grant. 

" Because I had a dream last night, and ever since the 
war began I have invariably had the same dream before 
any important military event occurred." 

He turned to Secretary Welles, and said, "It is in 
your line too, Mr. Welles. The dream is, that I saw a ship 
sailing very rapidly, and I am sure that it portends some 
important national event." 

Later in the day the carriage was ordered for a drive. 

" Would you like any one to go with us 1 " asked Mrs. 
Lincoln. 

" No ; let us go alone. I prefer to ride by ourselves 
to-day," said the President. 

During the drive he was full of fun, making his wife 
laugh at his jokes and gaiety. 

" Dear husband, you almost startle me by your great 
cheerfulness," she said. 

" And well I may feel so, Mary," he replied, " for I con- 
sider this day the war has come to a close." 

" That is indeed reason for rejoicing." 

" Yes ; and, Mary, we must be more cheerful in the future. 
Between the war and the loss of our darling Willie we have 
been very miserable." 

Alas ! that was the last drive they had together. 

In the evening there was to be a grand performance at 
the theatre. The Washington papers announced that 
"Lieutenant-General Grant, President Lincoln, Mrs. Lincoln 
and Ladies will occupy the State box at Ford's Theatre to- 
il ight." General Grant declined to attend, and Mr. Lincoln 



126 NEW WORLD HEROES. 

did not wish to go, but he thought the people would be dis- 
appointed if neither he nor Grant was present ; and so, as 
he was " fixed upon having some relaxation," he went. He 
and Mrs. Lincoln and their friends were greeted as soon 
as they entered the box with prolonged cheering. The 
President bowed his acknowledgments, and was soon 
quietly watching the transactions upon the stage. 

Many people were feeling anxious as to the safety of the 
President, for there were rumours of an intended assassin- 
ation. He greatly objected to be always guarded, and liked 
freedom and movement too well to submit to the restraint. 
But he had only that day written to a friend that " he 
would in future see that all due precautions were taken." 

To another friend, who had expressed the fear that the 
rebels might take his life, he had shown a packet of letters, 
saying, " There, every one of these contains a threat to 
assassinate me. I might be nervous if I were to dwell upon 
the subject, but I have come to the conclusion that there are 
opportunities to kill me every day of my life, if there are 
persons disposed to do it. It is not possible to avoid exposure 
to such a fate, and I shall not trouble myself about it." 

He was certainly not troubling himself about it when the 
deed was done. 

He was seated on a cushioned, rocking arm-chair, at the 
end of the box farthest from the stage, and nearest to the 
audience, and was already interested. Mrs. Lincoln sat in 
a chair between the President and the pillar in the centre 
of the box ; Miss Harris and Major Rathbone occupied other 
chairs. The box was not closed during the evening. 

At fifteen minutes after ten a young man passed along 
the passage behind the dress circle, and showing a card to 
the President's messenger, stood for a few minutes looking 
down upon the audience and the stage below. He then 
entered the vestibule of the President's box, and softly 
closed the door behind him, so that it could not be opened 



PEACE AND VICTORY. 127 

from the outside. Every one in the President's box was 
intently watching the play ; and no one there noticed the 
new comer, as he drew from his pocket a silver-mounted 
Derringer pistol, which he held in his right hand, while in 
his left he held a long, double-edged dagger. 

He stepped within the inner door of the President's box, 
and stood immediately over the chair of the President. 

The next moment he pulled the trigger, and Abraham 
Lincoln leaned slightly forward, and closed his eyes. He 
had been shot through the back of the head. 

The flash, the report, and the puff of smoke roused the 
inmates in the box, and Major Rathbone at once seized the 
intruder. He dropped the pistol, and struck at Rathbone 
with a dagger. The Major tried still to grapple with the 
assassin, but he wrenched himself away. He went to the 
front of the box, and shouted the insulting words, Sic 
semper tyrannis. He then sprang from the box to the stage 
below. As he did so his spur caught in the flag hung 
below the State box, and he fell ; but quickly recovering 
himself, he faced the audience, and cried, as he brandished 
his dagger, " The South is avenged." 

It all happened so quickly that no one had any idea of 
what had really occurred. The people thought the shot 
was part of the play. A man named Hawke was the only 
person on the stage when Booth leaped down, and he, seeing 
the dagger, thought the man meant to do him some mischief, 
and he ran away. But Mrs. Lincoln screamed, and Miss 
Harris called for water. As Booth rushed off the stage, 
some one said, " That is John Wilkes Booth ; " and Major 
Rathbone cried, "Stop that man." The confusion of the 
moment was so great that no one attempted to follow the 
murderer but one man, Mr. J. B. Stewart of the "Washington 
Bar. But Booth lost not a moment. He was an actor, and 
knew the ways of exit from the theatre, and as Mr. Stewart 
reached the door he saw the assassin spring upon a horse 



128 NEW WORLD HEROES. 

that a boy was holding, and ride away. In the theatre all 
was excitement. The people answered their own question, 
"YfhatisiU" with "The President has been shot;" for 
all feared it must be so. Laura Keene's clear voice was the 
first to ring through the theatre, " Keep quiet in your seats, 
give him air ; " and she herself, with water and cordials, 
went into the President's box. 

He neither spoke ncr moved after the shot was fired. 
Several surgeons at once came forward ; and as soon as they 
found the wound, they carefully carried Mr. Lincoln out of 
the theatre to the house of Mr. Peterson. Surgeon-General 
Barnes at once said that the President had not many hours 
to live. He was immediately surrounded by the members 
of his Government, who remained with him through the 
night. Mrs. Lincoln had fainted after the scream which 
had first given intimation of that which had occurred ; but 
when she had returned to consciousness she was led to the 
house where her husband was dying ; and there she sat in 
another room, crushed and stunned by grief. Her son 
Robert was there supporting her, and Mrs. Senator Dixon 
was by her side. No one could realise the blow that had 
fallen. Every one felt as Secretary Stanton did, when 
Surgeon-General Barnes announced the wound to be a 
mortal one — " Oh, no, General, no, no," he said, as he burst 
into tears. The Hon. M. B. Field, Assistant Secretary of 
the Treasury, thus writes : — 

"For several hours the breathing continued, and ap- 
parently without pain or consciousness. But about seven 
o'clock a change occurred, and the breathing, which had 
been continuous, was interrupted at intervals. These 
intervals became more frequent, and of longer dura- 
tion, and the breathing more feeble. Several times the 
interval was so long that we thought him dead, and the 
surgeon applied his finger to the pulse, evidently to 
ascertain if such were the fact. But it was not until 



rEACE AXD VIC TORY. 129 

twenty-two minutes past seven o'clock in the morning that 
the flame flickered out. There was no apparent suffering, 
no convulsive action, no rattling of the throat, none of the 
ordinary premonitory symptoms of death. Death in this 
case was a mere cessation of breathing. 

" The fact had not been ascertained one minute when Dr. 
Gurley offered up a prayer. The few persons in the room 
were all profoundly affected. The President's eyes after 
death were not, particularly the right one, entirely closed. 
I closed them myself with my fingers. The expression 
immediately after death was purely negative ; but in fifteen 
minutes there came over the mouth, the nostrils, and the 
chin, a smile that seemed almost an effort of life. T had 
never seen upon the President's face an expression more 
genial and pleasing. 

" About fifteen minutes before the decease, Mrs. Lincoln 
came into the room, and threw herself upon her dying 
husband's body. She was allowed to remain there only a 
few minutes, when she was removed in a sobbing condition, 
in which, indeed, she had been during all the time she was 
present." 

It was some time before any one had the presence of 
mind to turn out the lights in the theatre, and tell the 
frightened people to go home. When they went out into 
the streets they were met by a crowd equally excited with 
tli em selves. 

" The President has been shot ! " they said ; and were 
confronted with the appalling news, " Mr. Seward has been 
assassinated." 

The dreadful story was all too soon confirmed. 

A little after ten on that fatal evening a man called at 
the residence of the Secretary of State, who was still very 
ill, and under surgical treatment. 

"I come from Dr. Yerdi, Mr. Seward's physician," he 
said, "and I have brought some medicine which it is 

b 9 



130 NEW WORLD HEROES. 

necessary for me to give to the Secretary myself." "No 
one is allowed to see the Secretary," said the servant. The 
man then pushed him aside, and mounted the stairs. 

He was about to enter the Secretary's room, when Mr. 
Frederk-k Seward appeared, and demanded to know his 
business. 

" I have some medicine for the Secretary," he said. 

"But you will not be allowed to enter my father's room,'" 
was the reply. The villain at once struck Mr. F. Seward 
with the butt end of a pistol, and pushing him aside, went 
into the Secretary's room, and mounting the bed, stabbed 
the Secretary several times, aiming at his throat. But he 
did not succeed in killing him, for his nurse and a soldier 
rushed in and pulled the man away. Mr. Seward managed 
to roll off the bed, and the assassin began to stab Robinson, 
the soldier. Presently he rushed downstairs, meeting on 
the way Major Augustus Seward and another of the 
Secretary's attendants. He stabbed them both ; altogether 
he stabbed five persons, and then escaped into the street. 

He was afterwards discovered to be Lewis Payne Powell. 

The Secretary did not die ; but he was very ill, and his 
friends dared not tell him of the President's death. He 
found it out for himself at last. " Is Lincoln dead ? " he 
said. " Was he stabbed too 1 I think he must be, or he 
would have come to see me." When he was well enough 
to be moved nearer the window, he saw the flags half-mast 
high, and said, with tears, " The President is dead ; I knew 
it." 

Raymond says: — "When the news of this appalling 
tragedy spread through the city, it carried consternation to 
every heart. Treading close on the heels of the President's 
murder — perpetrated, indeed, at the same instant — it was 
instinctively felt to be the work of a conspiracy — secret, 
remorseless, and terrible. The Secretary of War, Mr. 
Stanton, had left Mr. Seward's bedside not twenty minutes 



PEACE AND VICTORY. 131 

before the assault, and was in his private chamber, preparing 
to retire, when a messenger brought tidings of the tragedy, 
and summoned his instant attendance. On his way to Mr. 
Seward's house Mr. Stanton heard of the simultaneous 
murder of the President, and instantly felt that the Govern- 
ment was enveloped in the meshes of a conspiracy, whose 
agents were unknown, and which was all the more terrible 
for the darkness and mystery in which it moved. Orders were 
instantly given to close all drinking-shops, and all places of 
public resort in the city; guards were stationed at every point, 
and all possible precautions were taken for the safety of the 
Vice-President and other prominent Government officials. 
A vague terror brooded over the population of the town. 
Men whispered to each other as they met in the gloom of 
midnight, and the deeper gloom of the shadowy crime which 
surrounded them. Presently, passionate indignation re- 
placed this paralysis of the public heart, and but for the 
precautions adopted on the instant by the Government, the 
public vengeance would have been wreaked upon the rebels 
confined in the Old Capitol Prison. All those feelings, how- 
ever, gradually subsided, and gave way to a feeling of 
intense anxiety for the life of the President. Crowds of 
people assembled in the neighbourhood of the house where 
the dying martyr lay, eager for tidings of his condition 
throughout the night; and when, early in the morning, it was 
announced that he was dead, a feeling of solemn awe filled 
every heart, and sat, a brooding grief, upon every face, 

" And so it was through all the length and breadth of the 
land. In every State, in every town, in every household 
there was a dull and bitter agony as the telegraph bore 
tidings of the awful deed. Everywhere throughout the 
Union, the public heart, bounding with exultation at the 
triumphant close of the great war, and ready to celebrate 
with a mighty joy the return of peace, stood still with a 
sacred terror as it was smitten by the terrible tidings from 



132 NEW WORLD HEROES. 

the capital of the nation. In the great cities of the land all 
business instantly stopped — no man had the heart to think 
of gain — flags drooped half-mast from every winged messen- 
ger of the sea, from every church spire, from every tree of 
liberty, and from every public building. Masses of the 
people came together by a spontaneous impulse to look in 
each other's faces, as if they could read there some hint of 
the meaning of these dreadful deeds — some omen of the 
country's fate. Thousands upon thousands, drawn by a 
common feeling, crowded around every place of public resort, 
and listened eagerly to whatever any public speaker chose 
to say. Wall Street in New York was thronged by a vast 
multitude of men, to whom eminent public officials addressed 
words of sympathy and hope. Gradually, as the day wore 
on, emblems of mourning were hung from the windows of 
every house throughout the town; and before the sun had set 
every city throughout the length and breadth of the land, to 
which tidings of the great calamity had been borne by the 
telegraph, was enshrouded in the shadow of the national 
grief. On the next day, which was Sunday, every pulpit 
resounded with eloquent eulogies of the murdered President, 
and with such comments on his death as faith in an over- 
ruling Providence alone could prompt. The whole country 
was plunged into profound grief, and none deplored the 
crime which deprived the nation of its head with more 
sincerity than those who had been involved in the guilt of 
the rebellion, and who had just begun to appreciate those 
merciful and forgiving elements in Mr. Lincoln's character, 
whose exercise they themselves would need so soon." 

In the meantime all the world was filled with horror at 
the event, and the condolences of other nations began to 
flow in. The Queen of England, herself a widow, sent a 
kind autograph letter to the widow of the President. 

Mrs. Stowe, who was moved by the fact of death following 
so soon after victory, said, " This our joy has been ordained 



PEACE AXD VICTORY. 133 

to l<e changed into a wail of sorrow. The kind hand that 
held the helm so steadily in the desperate tossings of the 
storm has been stricken down just as we entered port ; the 
fatherly heart that bore all our sorrows can take no earthly 
part in our joys. His were the cares, the watchings, the 
toils, the agonies of a nation in mortal struggle ; and God, 
looking down, was so well pleased with his humble faithful- 
ness, his patient continuance in well-doing, that earthly 
rewards and honours seemed all too poor for him, so He 
reached down and took him to immortal dories. 'Well 

o 

done, good and faithful servant ! enter into the joy of thy 
Lord.' " 

The body of the President was embalmed, and it was 
thought that not less than 25,000 persons went to look at 
the face that was so dear to them. The rich and the poor 
came alike, and hundreds brought flowers as little offerings 
of love. The following Wednesday was the day of the 
funeral ceremony. Service was first held in the east-room 
of the Executive Mansion, and then the remains were 
removed to the Rotunda of the capital. There was an 
enormous procession, and vast crowds thronged to see it. 
There were funeral services in all the churches of Washing- 
ton, and in most of the churches throughout the United 
States, and indeed throughout the world. Dr. Gurley 
preached the funeral sermon at Washington. He said, " As 
we stand here to-day, mourners around this coffin, and 
around the lifeless remains of our beloved Chief Magistrate, 
we recognise and we adore the sovereignty of God. . . . 
It was a cruel, cruel hand, that dark hand of the assassin, 
which smote our honoured, wise, and noble President, and 
filled the land with sorrow. But above and beyond that 
hand there is another which we must see and acknowledge — 
it is the chastising hand of a wise and a faithful Father." 

But the body of the good President was not to rest in 
Washington, but near the old home at Springfield. 



CHAPTER XV. 



AFTERWARDS. 



! IIe went about his work — sucli work as few 

Ever had laid on head and heart and hand — 
As one who knows, where there's a task to do, 

Man's honest will must heaven's good grace command : 

The Old "World and the New, from sea to sea, 

Utter one voice of sympathy and shame ! 
Sore heart, so stopped when it at last beat high ; 

Sad life, cut short just as its triumph came.'' 

—Punch. 

HERE was something exceedingly pathetic in the 
long funeral procession which bore the dead body 
I of President Lincoln from the palace at Washing- 
where he had lived his life of exaltation, back to 
Springfield, among whose quiet scenes the foundation of his 
future greatness had been laid. 

On the morning of the 21st of April, at six o'clock, the mem- 
bers of the Cabinet, Lieutenant-General Grant and his staff, 
several senators, the Illinois delegation, and a large number 
of army officers, took their last farewell of their President. 
Dr. Gurley offered a solemn prayer, and the coffin, accom- 
panied by that of Willie Lincoln, was taken to the railway 




ton, 



AFTERWARDS. 135 

station. The engine bell tolled, and the train slowly moved 
away from the depot ; " and thus Abraham Lincoln slowly 
moved away from Washington, the scene of his life's work 
and his glory." 

The funeral cortege was conveyed by special train over 
almost the same route as that which he had taken on his 
journey to Washington after his election. The car, too, was 
the same, only now it had been appropriately draped in 
mourning. The rate of speed was limited ; but the train 
did not stop until it arrived at Baltimore. In out-of-the- 
w r ay places, people came from their cottages or farms, and 
stood bareheaded as it went past. Mourners waited along 
the whole line, wearing badges of sorrow, to catch a view of 
the train that bore the dead body of him whom they loved 
so well. 

Baltimore, through which he had hurried incognito four 
years before to escape threatened assassination, was anxious 
now to render every tribute of respect. The body was 
placed on a splendid catafalque in the Exchange, and 
thousands looked, through tears, on the dead face of the 
man whom they honoured. On the route from Baltimore 
to Philadelphia six ladies came into the car, and placed upon 
the coffin an exquisite wreath of flowers. At Harrisburg 
the obsequies commenced in the evening, and until midnight 
the catafalque was surrounded by groups of mourners. At 
Philadelphia the body rested in the old Independent Hall, 
above which, half-mast high, waved the American flag 
which Lincoln had hoisted as he passed through the city 
before. The bier was close to the old bell which in 1776 
had first rung out the tidings of independence. The lines 
of persons passing in to see the remains " extended to at 
least three miles." At Newark it seemed that the whole 
city came out. At Jersey City solemn strains of funeral 
music from choirs of singers mingled with the cannon and 
tolling bells. In the metropolis of New York the scene 



136 NEW WORLD HEROES. 

was so imposing as to baffle description. The fronts of the 
houses were draped in mourning, and the streets and 
windows were full of people ; " while from distant batteries 
the cannon belched each minute their thunder-tones of woe, 
from all the steeples came forth the wailing of bells, and 
from old Trinity's lofty spire floated upon the breeze the 
tuneful chimings of 'Old Hundred.'" The coffin was taken 
into the City Hall amid the solemn chantings of eight 
hundred choristers : and there it rested amid emblems of 
military display and floral tokens of affection, while all day 
and night the people passed through to take a look at the 
features of the deceased. At the solemn hour of midnight 
a funeral chant was performed in the Rotunda by the 
German musical societies of the town, with an effect that 
was said to be harmoniously grand and sublime. On the 
25th of April the remains were borne away in a procession 
that was altogether grand and imposing. The military 
pageant was very fine : there was a force of at least ten 
thousand men. The procession was closed by the coloured 
population of New York. They had not been invited to 
join in the pageant, but they were permitted to do so, and 
gladly availed themselves of the opportunity to testify their 
love and gratitude for their great benefactor. They 
numbered at least two thousand persons, and they were 
preceded by a banner, which bore on one side the 
inscription — 

««gU*valjam gtnc#ln> &xxv (&xixanzipaxov>" 

and on the other, 

The coloured people in the procession were vehemently 
applauded. Everything went to show that the feeling of 
love and sorrow was unanimous. The New York Tribune 







Abraham Lincoln's Tomb in Oak Bridge Cemetery.— Pa.^c 138. 



AFTERWARDS. 137 

said, " A funeral in each house in Central New York would 
hardly have added solemnity to the day ; " and the New 
York Herald said, u Such an occasion, such a crowd, and 
such a day New York may never see again." A magnificent 
address was delivered in Union Square by the Hon. George 
Bancroft, the historian, and an ode was recited by William 
Cullen Bryant. 

The funeral train reached Buffalo on the morning of the 
twenty-seventh ; men and women had spent wakeful nights 
in watching for it. It reached Cleveland on Friday, " the 
most imposing pageant that this beautiful city on the lake 
had ever created or witnessed. Bishop M'llvaine of the 
Diocese of Ohio read the Episcopal burial service on the 
opening of the coffin, and offered prayer; after which the 
long procession filed through the pavilion, and caught a last 
glimpse of the honoured dead." At Colombus, Indianapolis, 
and Chicago, the people did all they could to honour the 
man who had died for them. Holland says, " It seemed 
almost like profanation of the sleeping President's rest, to 
bear him so far, and expose him to so much ; but the people 
demanded it, and would take no denial. All parties, all 
sects — friends and foes alike — mingled in their affectionate 
tributes of honour and sorrow." In Chicago the remains of 
the President were at home, in the State in which he had 
bpent most of his life ; " and the people grasped him with 
almost a selfish sense of ownership. He was theirs. Only 
a short distance from the spot lay his old antagonist, 
Douglas, in his last sleep. The party champions were once 
more near each other upon their favourite soil ; but their 
eloquent lips were silent — silent with an eloquence sur- 
passing sound, in the proclamation of mighty changes in the 
nation, and the suggestions of mutability and mortality 
among men." 

The long journey was ended on the 3rd of May, when the 
remains reached Springfield, where the chief mourners lived. 



138 NEW WORLD HEROES. 

A tomb had been prepared in Oak Ridge cemetery, a 
beautiful spot outside the city ; and there he was buried 
— Little Willie by his side ; while those who could, 
sang "Children of the heavenly King," and "Peace, 
Troubled Soul," and those who could not sing wept. A 
beautiful hymn, written for the occasion, was also sung ; 
and Bishop Simpson, a friend of Mr. Lincoln, gave an 
address. The address was very eloquent; and one of its 
finest passages contained the memorable words of the 
dead President on the slave-power in the land : — 

" Broken by it, I, too, may be — bow to it, I never will. The 
probability that we may fail in the struggle ought not to 
deter us from the support of a cause which we deem to be 
just ; and it shall not deter me. If ever I feel the soul 
within me elevate and expand to those dimensions not 
wholly unworthy of its Almighty Architect, it is when I 
contemplate the cause of my country, deserted by all the 
world besides, and I, standing up boldly and alone, and 
hurling defiance at her victorious oppressors. Here, without 
contemplating consequences, before high Heaven and in 
the face of the world, I swear eternal fidelity to the just 
cause, as I deem it, of the land of my life, my liberty, and 
my love." 

There they left the body of the good, great man, in the 
little cemetery at Springfield, among the sweet scenes of 
nature, and the silences of rest — left him, " after life's 
fitful fever," to " sleep well," until he should awake to a 
greater day at the well-beloved sound of his Master's 
voice, and the joy of His "Well done, good and faithful 
servant." 

Andrew Johnson, the Vice-President, had, under the 
provisions of the Constitution, taken the oath of office, and 
become President of the United States. 

And what of the murderer? He was shot on the 26th 
of April, twelve days after the murder. He was traced to 



AFTERWARDS. 139 

a, barn belonging to William Garrett, on the other side of 
the Potomac. With him was his accomplice, David 0. 
Harold. The barn was surrounded, and the villains ordered 
to surrender. Booth refused, and the barn was set on fire. 
The murderer of the President stood with a pistol in each 
hand, but Sergeant Corbett, by a sudden impulse, shot him 
through the neck, and he died three hours after. John 
Wilkes Booth was the son of a famous tragedian, and also 
himself an actor of more than ordinary ability. He was 
of good appearance, but led a profligate life ; and seems 
to have committed the deed more from a morbid desire 
of notoriety than anything else, though he was known 
to have strong Southern sympathies. Harold was arrested, 
and he, with Payne, who had attacked the Chief Secretary, 
Mr. Seward, and other conspirators were hanged for their 
crime. And the country soon settled down to peace and 
prosperity again. 

Some of the English papers had been very hard upon the 
President, Punch and The Times especially ; but they 
hastened to bear their tribute to his worth afterwards. 
Punch had a poem, which exhibited real goodness under 
that which, being comic, was often severe. 



" You lay a wreath on murdered Lincoln's bier, 
You, who with mocking pencil won't to trace, 
Broad for the self-complacent British sneer, 

His length of shambling limb, his furrowed face. 

His gaunt, gnarled hands, his unkempt, bristling hair, 
His garb uncouth, his bearing ill at ease, 

His lack of all we prize as debonair, 
Of power or will to shine, of art to please ! 

You, whose smart pen backed up the pencil's laugh, 
Judging each step as though the way were plain ; 

Reckless, so it could point each paragraph, 
Of chief's perplexity, or people's pain ? 



MO NEW WORLD HEROES. 

Inside this corpse, that bears for winding-sheet 
The stars and stripes he lived to rear anew ; 

Between the mourners at his head and feet, 
Say, seurrile jester, is there room for you ? 

Yes ; he had lived to shame me for my sneer, 

To lame my pencil and confute my pen — 
To make me own this hind of princes peer, 

This rail-splitter a true-born king of men. 

My shallow judgment I had learnt to rue, 

Noting how to occasion's height he rose, 
How his quaint wit made home-truth seem more true, 

How, iron-like, his temper grew by blows." 

"The assassination of President Lincoln," said a chronicle 
of the time, " and of the attempt to assassinate Mr. Seward, 
caused an extraordinary sensation in the city on Wednes- 
day. Towards noon it became known, and spread rapidly 
from mouth to mouth in all directions. At first many 
were incredulous as to the truth of the rumour, and some 
believed it to have been set afloat for purposes in connection 
with the Stock Exchange. The house of Peabody and 
Co., American bankers in Broad Street, had received early 
intelligence of the assassination, and from there the news was 
carried to the Bank of England, whence it quickly radiated 
in a thousand directions. Meanwhile it was being wafted 
far and wide by the second editions of the morning papers, 
and was supplemented later in the day by the publication 
of additional particulars. Shortly after twelve o'clock it 
was communicated to the Lord Mayor, while he was sitting 
in the justice-room of the Mansion House ; and about the 
same time the ' star spangled banner ' was hoisted half- 
mast high over the American Consulate at the corner of 
Gracechurch Street. The same flag had but a few days 
before floated in triumph from the same place, on the entry 
of the Federals into Iiichmond, and still later, on the 



AFTERWARDS. Ill 

surrender of General Lee. Between one and two o'clock 
the third edition of The Times, containing a circumstantial 
narrative of the affair, made its appearance in the city, and 
became immediately in extraordinary demand. A news- 
vendor in the Royal Exchange was selling it at half-a-crown 
a copy, and by half-past three it could not be had for 
money. The excitement caused by the intelligence was 
everywhere manifest, and in the streets, on the rail, on the 
river, and in the law courts, the terrible event was the 
theme of conversation. Throughout the remainder of the 
day the evening papers were sold in unexampled numbers, 
and often at double and treble the ordinary price, all 
evincing the universal interest felt at the astounding news. 
On the receipt of the melancholy intelligence in the House 
of Commons, about sixty members of all parties immediately 
assembled, and signed the following address of sympathy 
to the American Minister : — 

" ' We, the undersigned Members of the British House of 
Commons, have learnt, with the deepest horror and regret, 
that the President of the United States of America has 
been deprived of life by an act of violence, and we desire 
to express our sympathy on the sad event with the 
American Minister, now in London, as well as to declare 
our hope and confidence in the future of that great country, 
which we trust will continue to be associated with enlight- 
ened freedom and peaceful relations with this and every 
other country. — London, April 29th, 1865.' " 

A London paper said, with reference to Liverpool : — 
" The scene on the Exchange was such as will not be for- 
gotten for a long time. At half-past eleven it was announced 
that the secretary and treasurer of the Liverpool Exchange 
News Rooms was in possession of the news. A terrible 
rush took place from the ' flags ' into the news room ; and, 
after a few minutes, it was announced that the secretary 
would read aloud the despatch from the bar of the news 



142 NEW WORLD HEROES. 

room. All was now silent. The passage wherein it was 
stated that President Lincoln had been shot at caused no 
great dismay ; but when the master of the rooms read, 
'The President never rallied, and died this morning,' there 
was a general expression of horror. Certainly there was 
one dissentient voice, which had the temerity to exclaim, 
' Hurrah ! ' His presence in the news room was of short 
duration, for being seized by the collar by as good a 
Southerner as there is in Liverpool, he was summarily 
ejected from the room, the gentleman who first seized him 
exclaiming, ' Be off, you incarnate fiend ! You are an 
assassin at heart. ' " 

We subjoin a few stories illustrative of Abraham Lincoln 
from the pen of Carpenter, who, in his six months at the 
White House, had many opportunities of hearing them : — 

" Lincoln was often waylaid by soldiers, importunate to 
get their back pay, or a furlough, or a discharge ; and if the 
case was not too complicated, would attend to it there and 
then. Going out of the main door of the White House one 
morning he met an old lady, who was pulling vigorously at 
the door bell, and asked her what she wanted. She said 
she wanted to see ' Abraham the Second ! ' The President, 
amused, asked her who Abraham the First might be, if 
there was a second 1 The old lady replied, ' Why, Lor' 
bless you, we read about the first Abraham in the Bible, 
and Abraham the Second is our President.' She was told 
that the President was not in his office then, and when she 
asked where he was, she was told, ' Here he is ! ' Nearly 
petrified with surprise, the old lady managed to tell her 
errand, and was told to come next morning at nine o'clock, 
when she was received, and kindly cared for by the President. 
At another time, hearing of a young man who was deter- 
mined to enter the navy as a landsman, after three years of 
service in the army, he said to the writer, ( Now, do you go 
over to the Navy Department, and mouse out what he is fit 



AFTERWARDS. 143 

for, and he shall have it, if it's to be had, for that's the 
kind of men I like to hear of.' The place was duly ' moused 
out,' with the assistance of the kind-hearted Assistant 
Secretary of the Navy ; and the young officer, who may 
read these lines on his solitary post at the mouth of the 
Yazoo river, was appointed upon the recommendation of 
the President of the United States. 

" Of an application for office by an old friend, not fit for 
the place he sought, he said, ' I had rather resign my place, 
and go away from here, than refuse him, if I consulted 
only my personal feelings ; but refuse him I must.' And 
he did." 

But such things added to the burden of sorrow which the 
President carried. After his death, some one comforted 
his son by telling him his father had gone to heaven. 

" Will he be happy in heaven 1 " asked Tad. 

"Oh, yes; every one is happy there." 

"Then," said the boy, "I am very glad he is dead, for 
he was never happy here." 

" One example of his exercise of pardoning power may 
excite a smile, as well as a tear ; but it may be relied upon 
as a veritable relation of what actually transpired. A 
distinguished citizen of Ohio had an appointment with the 
President one evening at six o'clock. As he entered the 
vestibule of the White House, his attention was attracted 
by a poorly-clad young woman who was violently sobbing. 
He asked her the cause of her distress. She said that she 
had been ordered away by the servants, after vainly waiting 
many hours to see the President about her only brother, 
who had been condemned to death. Her story was this : — ■ 
She and her brother were foreigners and orphans. They 
had been in this country several years. Her brother 
enlisted in the army, but through bad influences was 
induced to desert. He was captured, tried, and sentenced 
to be shot — the old story. The poor girl had obtained the 



144 NEW WORLD HEROES. 

signatures of some persons who had formerly known him, to 
a petition for a pardon, and, alone, had come to Washington 
to lay the case before the President. Thronged as the 
waiting-rooms always were, she had passed the long hours 
of two days trying in vain to get an audience, and had at 
length been ordered away. 

"The gentleman's feelings were touched. He said to her 
that he had come to see the President — but he did not 
know that he should succeed. He told her, however, to 
follow him upstairs and he would see what could be done 
for her. Just before reaching the door, Mr. Lincoln came 
out, and meeting his friend, said, good-humouredly, ' Are 
you not ahead of your time 1 ' The gentleman showed him 
his watch with the hand upon the hour of six. ' Well,' 
returned Mr. Lincoln, ' I have been so busy to-day that I 
have not had time to get a lunch. Go in and sit down ; I 
will be back directly.' 

" The gentleman made the young woman accompany him 
into the office, and when they were seated, said to her — ■ 
' Now, my good girl, I want you to muster all the courage 
you have in the world. When the President comes back he 
will sit down in that arm-chair. I shall get up to speak to 
him, and as I do so you must force yourself between us, and 
insist upon his examination of your papers, telling him it is 
a case of life and death, and admits of no delay.' These 
instructions were carried out to the letter. Mr. Lincoln 
was at first somewhat surprised at the apparent forwardness 
of the young woman, but observing her distressed appear 
ance, he ceased conversation with his friend, and commenced 
an examination of the document she had placed in his 
1 lands. Glancing from it to the face of the petitioner, 
whose tears had broken forth afresh, he studied its expres- 
sion for a moment, and then his eye fell upon her scanty 
but neat dress. Instantly his face lighted up. ' My poor 
girl,' said he, ' you have come here with no Governor, or 



AFTERWARDS. 145 

Senator, or Member of Congress, to plead your cause. You 
seem honest and truthful ; and you don't wear hoops — and 
I will be whipped, but I will pardon your brother ! ' • 

One of the most eloquent testimonies to Lincoln's life and 
work was borne by the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, in a 
sermon preached at Plymouth Church, Brooklyn, on the 
Sunday after his death. It contained the following words : — 
" Even he that now sleeps has, by this event, been clothed 
with new influence. Dead, he speaks to men who now 
willingly hear what before they shut their ears to. Like 
the words of Washington will his simple, mighty words 
be pondered on by your children, and children's children. 
Men will receive a new accession to their love of patriotism, 
and will for his sake guard with more zeal the welfare of 
the whole country. On the altar of this martyred patriot 
I swear you to I e more faithful to your country. They 
will, as they follow his hearse, swear a new hatred to that 
slavery which has made him a martyr. By this solemn 
Bpectacle I swear you to renewed hostility to slavery, and to 
n never ending pursuit of it to its grave. They will admire 
and imitate his firmness in justice, his inflexible conscience 
for the right, his gentleness and moderation of spirit ; and I 
swear you to a faithful copy of his justice, his mercy, and 
his gentleness. You I can comfort, but how can I speak to 
the twilight millions who revere his name as the name of 
God. Oh, there will be wailing for him in hamlet and 
cottage, in woods and wilds, and the fields of the South. 
Her dusky children looked on him as on a Moses come to 
lead them out from the land of bondage. To whom can we 
direct them but to the Shepherd of Israel, and to His care 
commit them for help, for comfort, and protection 1 And 
now the martyr is moving in triumphal march, mightier 
than when alive. Cities and States are his pall-bearers, 
and cannon beat the hours with solemn procession. Dead I 
dead ! dead ! yet he speaketh ! Is Washington dead 1 Is 

B 10 



146 KEW WORLD HEROES. 

Hampden dead 1 Is David dead 1 Now, disenthralled of 
flesh, and risen to the unobstructed sphere where passion 
never comes, he begins his illimitable work. His life is 
grafted upon the Infinite, and will be fruitful now as no 
earthly life can be. Pass on, thou that hast overcome? 
Your sorrows, O people, are his psean. Your bells, and 
bands, and muffled drum sound in his ear a triumph. You 
wail and weep here. God makes it triumph there. Four 
years ago, Illinois, we took him from your midst, an 
untrind man from among the people. Behold, we return 
him a mighty conqueror. Not thine, but the nation's ; not 
ours, but the world's ! Give him place, ye prairies ! In 
the midst of this great continent his dust shall rest a sacred 
treasure to millions who shall pilgrim to that shrine, to 
kindle anew their zeal and patriotism. Ye winds that 
move over the mighty spaces of the West, chant his requiem ! 
Ye people, behold a martyr, whose blood, as articulate 
words, pleads for fidelity, for law, for liberty ! " 




News had readied New York that President Lincoln 
had been shot and was dead ; further tidings came that 
Secretary Seward had also been assassinated. The people 
were in the state of mind which urges to violence. Loud 
cries of vengeance were raised by the crowd, and ten 
thousand faces, angry and white, were turned in the direc- 
tion of the office of The World newspaper. At that moment 
a man appeared on the balcony, waving a small flag. 
"Another telegram from Washington !" said someone, and 
the mass of people grew quiet. Then a clear voice rang 
through the air — " Fellow citizens ! clouds and darkness 
are round about Him ! His pavilion is dark waters, and 
thick clouds of the skies ! Justice and judgment are the 
establishment of His throne ! Mercy and truth shall go 
before His face ! Fellow citizens, God reigns, and the 
Government of Washington still lives /" A great awe fell 
upon the crowd. It seemed as if a voice from heaven had 
spoken, and over the surging sea of humnn hearts a divine 
" Peace, be still " had fallen. Then some asked, as in a 
whisper, "Who is he?" and the answer was, "General 
Garfield of Ohio." 



JAMES A. GARFIELD, 






c 

















Sf£> 




James A. Garfield 



NEW WORLD HEROES. 



CHAPTER I 



A FOREST FUNERAL. 



t: Tins is the forest primeval. The murmuring pines and the 
hemlocks, 
Bearded with moss, and in garments green, indistinct in 

the twilight, 
Stand like Druids of old, with voices sad and prophetic." 

— Longfellow. 

T was July, and the sun shone down upon the 
forest with great strength; but whether the 
weather was hot or cold, the people living in 
Orange Cuyahoga County were going to a 
funeral. They were all settlers, living their 
lives of solitary toil, but " a fellow-feeling 
made them wondrous kind;" and on all great occasions, such 
as weddings and funerals, they paid visits of congratulation 
or condolence to their neighbours. There were only about 
six families within a radius of ten miles ; and there would 
not be a very large gathering : but those who could go 
willingly gave up the day and walked the distance, to say 




152 NEW WORLD HEROES. 

a comforting word or two to the mourners. So a few 
stalwart men and pitiful women, strong lads and thought- 
ful girls, made their way from their different farms, and 
travelled through the pathless forest to meet together in 
the log-cabin of Abram Garfield. 

The widow spoke quietly to them as they came, one by 
one, through the plank door, and they took their seats on 
the three-legged stools, which formed the chief furniture of 
the house, and looked the sorrow which they could not 
speak. On the bed, made in the side of the cabin, was 
stretched the long, straight figure of the hardy pioneer, 
whom every one knew and all respected. 

" Ah, poor fellow ! You have had a fire in the forest 
hereabouts, I see," said one ; " had that anything to do with 

iti" 

" Yes," said the young widow, bending her head down to 
the little boy of eighteen months who was nestling in her 
arms, " the forest fire had all to do with it." 

" The fires are dreadful things, and no one seems to know 
how they begin. But with such heaps of dry dead leaves 
lying about, it is no wonder that when they do once begin 
they should keep on." 

" The fire did not begin on our farm," said the widow, 
"but we saw it raging, and were afraid it would reach 
our corn and our home; so Abram set to work to make 
a wall of earth between his fields and the fire. There was 
no time to lose, and he had no one to help him, but he 
worked for home and life. We must be starved if the 
fields were destroyed, and we should be homeless if the 
cabin got burnt ; so the man worked like a hero to save 
his own." 

" He was a hero," said a woman ; and the little company 
assented. 

" And he got his barrier up in time 1 " 

" Oh, yes. We watched the fire creeping nearer and 



A FOREST FUNERAL. 153 

nearer ; but Abram was quicker than the flames, and before 
they reached our farm he had finished his work." 

"That was a good thing." 

" Oh, I don't know," said the woman through her tears. 
" Perhaps it would have been better if we had all perished 
together." 

But here little James put his hand up to his mother's 
face, and the childish touch at the same time rebuked and 
comforted her. 

"It was too much for him," she said presently. "He 
got very warm and tired, and then he sat down to rest. 
Although the sun was hot, there was a cold wind, and I 
suppose he took a chilL He could not sleep when he got 
to bed; his limbs ached, and he was very feverish, and 
towards morning his throat got very sore. If there had 
been a doctor he might have been saved. We did what we 
could, and he was not long ill. He sat here, with his head 
leaning on the bed, and he looked out on his little farm, 
and in on his four children. ' Eliza,' he said, ' I have planted 
four saplings ; you will have to see that they grow straight.' 
He could not talk much, his throat was so bad, and at last 
he was choked." 

There was a little silent weeping after that ; and then 
one of the men said gently, " We had better see about 
making a coffin." 

Who does not know wha^ Is meant by the bringing in of a 
coffin to an English home 1 But even the undertakers are 
careful to do it in the evening, and as privately as possible, 
so that the feelings of the mourners may not be harrowed 
by the sight of it. In the very poorest homes there is 
almost always a room sacred for the time to the dead ; but 
this was not possible here. The corpse lay in the only 
room there was, except a rude loft above, and no reticence 
was possible. 

The neighbours soon made a rough box, and the dead 



154 NEW WORLD HEROES. 

man, with his strong limbs composed into quietness, and hi3 
weather-beaten face looking calm in the majesty of death, 
was laid down in it. Little James looked wonderingly on, 
prattling in his baby-unconsciousness about " Pap-pap," 
and rather pleased than not — in baby-fashion — at the 
unusual commotion in his log-cabin home. 

" Where would you like the grave to be ? " asked the 
nearest neighbour, Mr. Boynton, her husband's half 
brother, whose kindness and sympathy had often been 
shown already. 

"I should like it yonder in the corner of the wheat- 
field," she said ; " I can see it then from the house, and 
perhaps I shall feel comforted sometimes." 

So the sturdy men dug a grave on the little farm, and 
then they carried the coffin to the place, and lowered it in 
the hole that had been made. 

It was a strange funeral. It was altogether a silent 
one, for no words were spoken, no prayer uttered, no hymn 
sung. The hush was but broken by the sobs of Mehetable, 
the eldest girl, the sighs of Thomas, the eldest boy, the tears 
of Mary, who did not know what it all meant, and the 
strange little noises of baby James ; and it seemed as if a 
wail went up from the forest trees as the wind moved among 
them. But Mrs. Garfield and her neighbours bore their 
grief in quietness, and the widow's tears went up to God for 
funeral dirge and prayer. She stood a little while by the 
open grave, and then straining her child to her heart, she 
went back to the log-home. One thing sustained her. She 
sorrowed not as those who have no hope. Her husband 
had been a Christian : and if there were no ordained minister 
to pronounce words of comfort, the still small voice of the 
Spirit of God set to solemn music, that thrilled the woman's 
heart, the grand triumphant words: — " It is sown in 
dishonour: it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness: 
it is raised in 'power. death, where is thy stiny ? 



A FOREST FUNERAL. 155 

grave, where is thy victory? Thanks he to God, who giveth 
US the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." 

There was a considerable walk before most of the neigh- 
bours, and they might not stay long even to offer what con- 
solations they could to the widow and the children. Their 
own hearts were sad enough, because there was one neigh- 
bour the less. In the life which the pioneers live, the 
social intercourse with each other forms a very consider- 
able compensation for the isolation and loneliness which 
must be endured. All who were present at the funeral 
felt that the dead man would be greatly missed from 
among them. 

"It is hard work to bear it all," they said one to another. 

" But God's will be done," suggested one who knew that 
the hearts of the others would add " Amen." 

" The years bring changes to all parts of the world." 

" Yes, but they mean more to us here in the forest than 
to most people, because we are obliged to depend on each 
other for comfort." 

The widow sighed. It seemed that all the comfort and 
joy of her existence had been buried that afternoon in the 
grave in the wheat-field. 

" Is there anything we can do for you ? " they asked. 

"No, thank you." 

"It is not very far to Zanesville. As soon as you can 
you had better go home to your friends," remarked Mr. 
Boynton. 

But Mrs. Garfield shook her head. "My home is here 
with my children, near the grave of their father." 

" But you will never be able to manage alone, with none 
lo help you. The children are all so young." 

"Yes; but they will be growing older every day. I 
must do the best that I can." 

They saw there was nothing for it but to let her try. 
She would soon find out that the burden was too heavy. 



156 NEW WORLD HEROES. 

"At all events," said Mr. Boynton, "you know where I 
live. You can send one of the children to fetch me any 
time you want a little neighbourly advice or help, and I 
will come at once. Thomas here looks as if he means to 
be a good, brave boy, and help his mother ; and you will 
see in a little while what is best to do." 

" Oh, yes; I am not afraid — at least, not very much afraid. 
Thomas is ten, and he is a strong boy, and knows how to do 
many things." 

"And God will help you." 

"Yes; if it was not for that I should sink altogether." 

So presently the friends departed as they had come, in 
little groups, to their forest homes, and the woman and her 
orphaned ones were left alone with God. 

Night came on. The children were put to bed in the 
little loft above, and the baby James fell asleep on the fresh 
straw bed that had been spread in the house-room. The 
woman dried her tears, and a steady light came into her 
eyes. Not yet must she let herself think of the happy years 
that had gone ; not yet must she even admit to herself that 
she missed the protection of the kind arms in which she had 
found rest, or the tender smile that had made the log-hut a 
palace, or the cheery words that had been like a song of 
hope. She must sternly put all such memories from her. 
They belonged to the past, and she had a future. God had 
taken away her husband, but she had her children. Nothing 
should part her from them. She was strong, and she would 
herself do the man's work that there was no one else to do. 
What she did not know she would learn. She was not 
afraid of work, no matter what the kind or the quantity ; 
and she would labour, and keep her children with her. No 
poverty nor want should drive her from them, or from her 
home. It was a good home, not small, and cramped, and 
cold, as some log-cabins were. It had been built by a clever 
man, a man who loved his work, and had taken pride in 



A FOREST FUNERAL. 157 

laying the logs one upon another, and filling up the spaces 
with clay. From first to last it was her husband's work ; 
it belonged to her, and she would die rather than give it up. 
So much she was determined upon, so much was plain. 
She would keep her house and her children, come what 
would. 

And what might come 1 

She knew that though she had lived in hard times, the 
hardest were to follow. There was a debt on the farm : 
that was the worst of it, and there was no money with 
which to pay it. This was the weight which, next to that 
caused by her widowhood, pressed the most heavily upon the 
poor woman's desolate heart. The debt must be paid, but 
how, she did not know : she could only wait and pray that 
God would show her the way. At present the prospect was 
altogether dreary. Then the winter would soon come, with 
its cold and loneliness, its dreary long nights and its hard 
clays. But the woman resolved that nothing should roll 
her of her courage and her resolution to maintain the old 
home, and keep her children with her. She could not see 
how it was to be done ; but that was no matter. She 
would certainly do it somehow. And after all there was 
God ! He would never leave her nor forsake her. He had 
not shielded her from the heaviest blow that could have 
fallen : but He would surely help her now. So, with a mute 
appeal to that divine tenderness which is ever the solace of 
the sorrowful, the widow crept into her hard bed, and took 
little James in her arms, and wearied out as she was with 
sorrow and care, soon fell asleep. 

But a " Good night " had been spoken in the log-hut, and 
the place was not too poor for the angels to come into it 
with a message : " Leave thy fatherless children, I will 
preserve them alive, and let thy ividoivs trust in Me." 



CHAPTER IE. 



HARD TIMES. 




" De strong to bear, oh heart, 
Nothing is vain ; 
Strive not, for life is care, 

And God sends pain ; 
Heaven is above, and there 
Rest will remain." 

— Adelaide Procter. 

jMONG the heroines of these times the name of 
Mrs. Eliza Garfield, the mother of James, must 
never be forgotten. The courage with which 
— her heart aching all the while for the loss of her 
beloved husband — she faced her life was truly remarkable. 
Difficulties were pressing and almost insurmountable ; but 
she was quietly resolved on overcoming them, and she did not 
flinch from the rough and stormy path through which she 
had been called to walk. It has been said already that 
there was a debt upon the farm, and this was at first 
the heaviest part of the burden. It kept her as full of care 
and thought as of work, and made her wonder how she 
could possibly maintain the position in which she had been 
left. The stock was not paid for ; and creditors, if patient, 



HARD TIMES. 150 

cannot wait too long. The farm was not fenced either ; 
and that was a work that was absolutely necessary to attend 
to. The fruit-trees on the farm looked promising ; but 
poor Mrs. Garfield needed something more than promises, 
and it was not yet time for the fruit to be ripe. The 
anxious expression on the widow's face grew deeper as the 
weeks went on, and some of her friends feared that the 
struggle would prove too severe for her strength. 

" Eliza," said Amos Boynton to her one day, " I was 
your husband's friend and brother, and I am yours. You 
have undertaken more than you can do. Give it up." 

" No ; I have no intention of giving it up." 

"There are several ways in which you might find relief." 

" Tell me what they are, then ? " 

" You might go home to your friends. They would find 
you a place, and when your children are older you might 
get a house of your own again." 

" But this is our very own; I can never give it up. Don't 
you know the place which the children call 'Mother's 
Retreat " ' It was there that Alpha told me how good it 
was to have one's own land, and I have since discovered 
for myself what it is. I could not bear to part with it. It 
ought to be made to pay ; and it can be in time ! I will 
not go away from Abram's land." 

" Then why not let some of your children go from home 1 
There are good people to be easily found, who would be 
willing to take Jimmy, and bring him up carefully and 
comfortably. If you were free to work you could do so 
much more than is possible now. Supposing you gave him 
up for a few years only." 

11 Brother Amos, how you talk ! If anyone had my James 
for a few years, do you think he would ever want to let 
him go again 1 I do not want it. I am his mother, and I 
will keep him. I could not be parted from my bonny 
baby." 



160 NEW WORLD HEROES. 

" Let the others go, then ! " 

"No, indeed; which could I spare? I can let neither be 
away from me in my struggle. I should quite lose hope and 
courage without my children." 

"Then what will you do?" 

"I will tell you what I have thought we might do. "We 
could sell a part of the farm. That would not be like 
parting with all of it. I could manage to live on the rest 
of the land, and we need not be parted." 

" Perhaps that could be done," said Mr. Boynton, doubt- 
fully. " You would not have much to live on then." 

"No, but we should have the home." 

"True. I will see if I can find any purchaser to suit 
you." 

In time one was found. A man bought fifty acres of the 
little farm of eighty acres ; and the Garfield family had the 
house, and thirty acres of land on which to thrive. 

" It will be hard work for you, Thomas,''" said the mother 
to the eldest son. 

"I don't mind, mother; I am glad to work for you and 
the children." 

"You are but a child yourself, my poor son." 

" Oh, no, mother. Don't say that. I am almost a man, 
and you will find that I can and will do a man's work." 

" We must fence the farm in." 

" Yes, that must be done, and this is the time to set 
about it." 

" Have courage, my boy, and we will do what we can. I 
will split the rails." 

" You ? Oh, mother ! " 

But the woman, slim and weak as she was, actually did 
make an effort to split the rails — the woman whom James 
Garfield turned to kiss when, long years afterward, he was 
elected President of the United States. Never did mother 
more thoroughly earn the honour and the right ! She could 




Mother of President Garfield. 



—Paje 158. 



BAUD TIMES. 161 

not have worked more resolutely than she did had she 
known what was before her. 

Thomas was ten years old, and he it was who ploughed 
the land and became farmer-in-chief. They had no longer 
a horse of their own, but they were able to hire one, and 
that did the work. "When the next harvest came all 
would be well ; and so the boy toiled away, as heartily as 
the mother, and neither complained. 

But the harvest was long in corning. A terrible fear 
entered the widow's heart that their stock of corn would 
not last until the next ingathering. The fear grew upon 
her until it was too awful to bear. 

11 1 must satisfy myself on that point before I can go 
further," she said; and one morning she arose a little 
earlier than usual, and measured out the corn that was 
left. She then made a calculation ; and found that at the 
present rate of consumption it would all have been con- 
sumed before the new corn was ready. 

The mother smiled tenderly as she arrived at her con- 
clusion. The children were not yet awake, and she looked 
upon them in their quiet sleep with the love and pity that 
only mothers feel. 

" Dear little mouths, they shall not hunger ! They need 
food to help them to grow and to thrive. Very little will 
suffice to keep me alive. I will take only one meal a day, 
or at the most two, and see if we can make the corn suffice." 

She did not tell the children of the sacrifice upon which 
she had resolved : they would have wished to share it with 
her. It was only afterwards, when better times had come, 
that Mrs. Garfield could bring herself to talk about such 
hardships. In the meantime she worked and struggled on. 
When she was not working out of doors she was busy 
within the house. She spun the cloth, and made the 
clothes of herself and her children. She also did 
sewing for the neighbours, and did not in the least care 

b 11 



162 NEW WORLD HEROES. 

what she did so long as the children were warmly clad 
and sufficiently fed. She must have understood very well 
the meaning of the modern term " over-work " but she 
did not let her work crowd out the higher interests from 
her life. She read four chapters of the Bible every day, 
and never let any evening pass without finding time for 
the instruction of her children. 

James was not precocious, but he was intelligent, and from 
the first his mother was anxious that he should be a scholar. 
By the time he was five years old his mother had taught 
him to read, and she was very delighted that he not only 
read the words, but understood the meaning of them. On 
one occasion he was reading, "The rain came pattering 
on the roof," when he exclaimed, " Why, mother, I know 
what that means. I have heard the rain do that myself 
many a time.' : 

From that day he took a greater delight in books, and 
read them with more vivid interest than before ; indeed, 
he generally took a book to bed with him, that he might 
read it in the morning when he awoke. 

One of Garfield's biographers says that his first attempt 
to go to school was before he was old enough to walk, and 
that his sister Mehetable carried him. After that, in the 
true settler's fashion, a teacher came to the neighbourhood 
and boarded with the people, and kept school in any 
accessible cabin. He took an especial liking to little James 
Garfield from the first. 

" James, you must be a good boy and learn," he said, 
" and then when you grow up you shall be a general." 

And the little fellow answered merrily, " Oh, yes, sir, 
I'll learn, and I'll be a general." 

When he went to school he found it impossible to obey 
the rule which ordered him to sit still. He tried, and he 
failed, and the teacher wondered what to do with him 
again and again. At last the mother was appealed to. 



HARD TIMES. 1G3 

11 1 don't want to grieve you, ma'am," said the teacher, 
"hut James won't sit still, and I am afraid I shall never 
make anything of him. He won't learn his lessons, and 
it is no use for him to come to school. It is only waste of 
time, and waste is bad anyhow," 

" Oh, James ! " said the mother, looking at the child with 
a sad, grieved expression, " your father wanted you to be a 
scholar, and so do I." 

The little boy made a great resolve : and from that time, 
although he could not sit still any better than before, he 
did learn his lessons. When the teacher went away he gave 
James a New Testament in token of his approval and 
pleasure in regard to the progress which he had made. 
James was proud, but his mother was prouder still of this 
reward. 

In the meantime his brother Thomas was proving himself 
a boy of more than ordinary strength of body and character. 
He gathered in the harvest, and became almost a man in 
his thoughtfulness and industry. He could not go to school, 
but he worked that his brother might ; and when the first 
ingathering took place, he said with joy, "Now, mother, 
the shoemaker can come and make James some shoes." 

" Do you not want a pair for yourself, Thomas 1 " asked 
the mother. 

" No ; it does not matter in the least about me, but James 
must be shod." 

" Do you love James 1 " 

" Yes, mother, nearly as much as you do. But isn't he 

lively 1 Since we have slept together he kicks the bed-clothes 

off every night. I am sure to hear him some time say, 

'Thomas, cover me over.' I think he says it in his 

sleep." 

Many years after, when he was at the war, James 
Garfield dreamed that he was again a boy, sleeping with 
his brother; and an officer relates how he cried out in 



164 NEW WORLD HEROES. 

the night, when they were camping out, " Thomas, cover 
me up." 

It will be seen that the Garfields, poor as they were, had 
that love for each other which does more than riches to 
brighten a home, and make the lives of children glad. The 
years passed away pleasantly and brightly to them all the 
same for their poverty. The children loved their mother, 
and took care of her as far as they were able, and she 
devoted herself entirely to them. As they grew older they 
were able to render more efficient help, and every year made 
them all more fond of little James. They shared their 
mother's faith that he would prove the clever one of the 
family. 

James was known at school as a fighting boy. It is said 
that he never began an attack, but when big boys bullied or 
beat him he turned on them like a young lion ; and his 
big brother always took his part. 

In regard to the religious training of the Garfields, 
Ogilvie says : " The children lived in an atmosphere of 
religious thought and discussion. Uncle Boynton, who 
was a second father to the Garfield family, flavoured all his 
talk with Bible quotations. He carried a Testament in his 
pocket wherever he went, and would sit on the plough-team 
at the end of a furrow to take it out and read a chapter. 
It was a time of religious ferment in Northern Ohio. New 
sects filled the air with their doctrinal cries. The Disciples, 
a sect founded by the preaching of Alexander Campbell, 
a devout man of Scotch descent, who ranged over Ken- 
tucky, Ohio, Virginia, and Pennsylvania, from his home 
at Bethany in the c Pan Handle,' had made great progress. 
They assailed all creeds as made by man, and declared the 
Bible to be the only rule of life. Attacking all the other 
denominations, they were vigorously attacked in return. 
James's mind was filled at an early day with the contro- 
versies this new sect excited. The guests at his mother's 



II A ED TIMES. 1G5 

house were mostly travelling preachers ; and the talk of the 
neighbourhood, when not about the crops and farm labours, 
was usually on religious topics." 

One pleasing incident is related of James, which proves 
that his love of truth was exceedingly strong. He had gone 
to visit an uncle who lived three miles away. It was night 
before he began the return journey ; and a shower, which 
developed into a storm, came on. It grew so dark that the 
boy was evidently frightened. " Stay all night, James," 
said his aunt and cousins. 

" No, I must not do that," said James. " Mother will be 
wondering what has become of me, and would be angry with 
me if I stayed." 

" If you go, you had better start at once, then." 

" So I will. Good night ; " and the boy boldly walked 
away. But the road led through a lonely district, thickly 
wooded, and altogether unguarded. The maples groaned, 
and the beeches cracked, as the winds beat upon them and 
bent them. The night was very cold, very wet, and very 
dark. The boy manfully trudged along for about half a 
mile, and then his courage failed him ; fear took possession 
of him, and he ran back to his uncle's house as fast as his 
le^s would take him. He arrived out of breath, looking 

o 

pale and excited. 

But no sooner was he there than he felt ashamed of his 
fears. 

" AVhat a coward I am," he said. 

" Oh, no ; it is such a bad night j it is not fit for you to 
go home," said his aunt. 

" But I will try again," said the boy. " I was foolish to 
come back ; it has made me another mile." 

" Don't attempt it again, James. Your mother need not 
know that it was because you were frightened. You can 
tell her that the mud was too deep for you to get 
home." 



166 NEW WORLD HEROES. 

That settled the matter. The boy's face Hushed, and his 
eyesflashed. 

" I will never tell my mother a lie," he said ; " and I 
should not like her to know I was afraid. I will go home. 
She is too good a mother to have a falsehood told her by 
her son." 

And away he started, and kept bravely on until he had 
reached home. 

Mr. Russell Oonnell says of this incident : — " That 
tradition is in accord with many others, and shows truth- 
fulness, a brave spirit, and a self-sacrificing life. The 
truth was his good angel. It kept him from everything 
which he would be afraid to confess. It overcame his indis- 
position to labour. It guided him safely over the dangerous 
bar of a petted boyhood. Inasmuch as he was more true 
in his speech and actions than other boys, just that much 
was his boyhood nobler and more promising than theirs, and 
no more. In all other things he was like the multitude. 
The determination and habit of speaking the simple truth 
was a badge of honour more honourable and more respected 
than the kingly ermine on the heraldic shield of his ancestors. 

"Wild and rough oftentimes, rude in his sports, and 
awkward in the presence of visitors, often in rags and dust 
he had carelessly made, with no other title or claim to 
respect, and no other capital to begin life upon, he found in 
his truth-telling an infallible guide to nobility and human 
greatness. This was the only very remarkable thing about 
his young life, and very curiously and surely it guided him 
upwards." 

The same writer says — "James was favoured with oppor- 
tunities for reading which the other members of that in- 
dustrious family did not get. It was usually accidental, 
however. He was a careless, awkward boy in the use of 
tools in his work, and was often laid up by self-inflicted 
wounds. He cut his feet with his axe or scythe. Ho 



HARD TIMES. 107 

wrenched his back by the fall of a fence rail upon him. 
He fell from the barn upon a pile of wood. So that while 
he was, perhaps, not more careless or awkward than boys of 
his age usually are, yet he was more often confined to the 
house as a result of accidents, and the hours of his retire- 
ment he most earnestly employed in studying all the books 
they had in the house, and all he could borrow of the neigh- 
bours. It was to his credit that he used his books with 
care, and any of his neighbours were willing to entrust their 
volumes to him. His neighbours say that he learned much 
more in his early days by studying history, and reading 
stories of scientific discovery out of school, than he ever 
gained from teachers. He was greatly interested in the 
debates and literary exercises which were often held on 
winter evenings at the school-house ; and it is said that as a 
critic he was dreaded by some of the old men before he was 
ten years of age." 

From this it will be seen that James was getting some 
very important lessons early. A good foundation was bein« 
laid on which to build a future character. The hand of 
God was in it all. Had his mother been able to choose, 
she would have elected happier conditions, with less of 
hardship and penury for her boy. But God puts His heroes 
into schools where the training is severe. David the Kins 
was the more illustrious because he had once been David 
the shepherd boy. It is quite possible that the world would 
never have heard the name of James Garfield if he had not 
been the poor son of a poor widow. 



:JTfMj^ 



CHAPTER III. 



A TOW-PATH BOY. 

c ' What, and if thy lot be hard ? 
Do not grumble ; 
Though the path be steep and rough, 

Do not stumble : 
Oaks by sunbeams only nourished, 
"Were but weak, and never flourished.' 




1HOMAS GARFIELD was still hard at work for 
his mother and the rest of the family. He greatly 
desired to see them in a better house than the log- 
cabin which they occupied. 

" Jamie," he said one day, " I have got the timber and 
the boards ready for a new home, will you help me build it ? " 
" Yes, I should like to do that. Uncle Amos says he 
thinks I was born to be a carpenter." 

" But you cannot use the tools without hurting yourself." 
" Oh, yes, I will. If you let me try I will take care and 
keep my thoughts upon the work. But do you think you 
have got enough stuff to build with ? " 

" I guess so. And I have the money too. We will get a 
man to help us. Our mother shall have a framed house." 



A TOW-PATH BOY. 169 

So they set to work to pull the old house down and put 
up a new one, of which, when it was completed, they were 
more than a little proud. It had three rooms below and 
two above ; and it was painted red outside. 

James was so delighted with his success as a carpenter, 
that he thought of adopting it as his future trade. 

His first situation was at Cleveland, above ten miles from 
his mother's house, with a man who was a black-salter. 
This man had a large establishment ; and as it was growing, 
he needed a wood shed added to the log shanties. James 
Garfield helped in building it ; and the owner, watching him 
at his work, thought he was a likely lad whom it would be 
wise to secure. 

"You had better stay 'long o' me," said the man ; "you 
kin read, and you kin write, and you are death on figgers. 
I'll find you, and give you fourteen dollars a-month, if you'll 
stay with me and keep my accounts, and 'tend to the 
saltery." 

James thought he would do anything to get fourteen 
dollars a-month. So he went home to talk it over with his 
mother. 

" Fourteen dollars a-month, my son ! It is a lot of 
money, and the man must think highly of you or he would 
not have offered so large a sum. But I don't know if you 
would like it, or if it would be well for you. This is a 
wicked world, my boy, and there will be temptations to try 
you. I don't know what to say." 

" Say ' Go,' mother. You aren't afraid to trust me, are 
you^" 

" No, my boy, not quite that ; but a mother cannot help 
being anxious about her children when they are away from 
her." 

" But I will come back, mother; and I will take care and 
remember your lessons. I know what is right, and I'll try 
to do it." 



170 NEW WORLD HEROES. 

So his mother let him go, with some fear, and he was not 
very long before he came back to her ; and then a more 
terrible anxiety still began to grow in her heart. 

" Mother," said James, " I should like to go to sea.' : 

"Oh, my boy, don't think of that." 

" It is such a splendid life they live upon ships, mother. 
No one is so jolly as a sailor. I have read books about 
sea-life — Sinbad the Sailor, The Pirate's Own Book, and 
some capital tales by Marryat." 

" I am sorry to hear it, if reading them has made you 
wish to go to sea." 

" I wish you would consent, mother." 

" My dear boy, I think I shall never do that. The sailors 
may be what you call jolly, but I am afraid they are not 
what I call good." 

James was silenced, but not convinced. He undertook to 
cut twenty-five cords of wood for a farmer, for which he was 
to receive seven dollars. From where he worked he could 
see, looking to the north, the slaty-blue of Lake Erie, and 
in his imagination it was magnified into the ocean. The 
consequence was, that while he was at work he was dreaming 
of the sea. When the wood-chopping was finished he went 
harvesting, but when the harvest had been all gathered in 
he again spoke to his mother. Her heart ached at the 
persistent desire of the lad ; but she thought no good would 
come of her refusal, and so she reluctantly consented that he 
should go to Cleveland, but made him promise to try to find 
some respectable occupation there. He walked all the way 
— seventeen miles — and tried to discover someone who 
wanted a lad who was able to write and cipher. But 
when he did not succeed he went to the docks among the 
shipping. A schooner was lying at the wharf, and James 
went on board. 

" Where is the captain 1 " he asked, and was shown to 
the room where he would be found. 



A TOW-PATH BOY. 171 

Presently he saw a drunken, violent-looking man, whom 
ho fearlessly addressed. 

" Are you the captain 1 I want to hire myself out as a 
sailor." 

But the wretch turned upon him with such oaths and 
curses that James beat a retreat. 

He found, soon after, that a cousin had a boat on the Ohio 
and Pennsylvanian Canal, in which he carried coals from 
the mines to Cleveland. James went to him, and was 
engaged as a canal boy, whose duty it was to lead the horses 
as they dragged the barge along. Here he was often in the 
worst company. The boys and men were frequently 
fighting and swearing, and sometimes they were positively 
cruel to him. Once a bully attacked him so fiercely that 
James was roused to a fury of self-defence, and sent the 
fellow rolling to the bottom of the boat. He was any- 
thing but happy. He felt that his mother would be grieved 
if she knew the kind of life he was living, and he felt, too, 
that his father would have been disappointed if he could 
have known. 

"They wanted me to be a scholar," he said to himself. 
"This is not much like that ! I ought to be too good for 
such a life as I am living now ! " 

He was losing his health as well as his refinement. He 
often had to wade in the water, and afterwards walk in his 
wet clothes. He met at this time a physician and a 
preacher — Dr. J. F. Robinson — who talked kindly and 
seriously to the youth, and advised him to endeavour to 
do something better with his life. 

" Go to school, Garfield," he said. " You can work for 
your board ; and if you get an education you will be fit for 
anything." 

But James could not at once make up his mind ; and 
besides, he had engaged to remain on the boat at advanced 
wa^es as steersman for three months- But as the end of 



172 NEW WORLD HEROES. 

the time drew near he became very weak and ill. At last 
in attempting to fasten a rope at the stern of the boat, 
he found that he had scarcely strength to draw it in. It had 
caught somewhere, and he gave it an impatient jerk. The 
rope yielded, but the lad fell headlong into the water. 

He could not swim, and as the dark waters closed over 
him he felt as if he would die. Must he drown 1 Or would 
he be saved ? Would God have mercy 1 The next moment 
he felt the rope, and managed by its aid to draw himself 
out of the water and into the boat. But he was very ill. 

" I must go home. I have ague," he said ; and his 
friends saw that it was so. 

" We will help you as far as we can," they said ; and did 
accompany him to Newberg. 

" I can do the rest of the journey myself/' said Garfield ; 
and sick and dizzy, burning with fever, and weak though 
he was, he walked on. 

It was night when he reached home, and stumbled up to 
the window. There was no lamp, but the firelight made 
the room visible. His mother was there kneeling in front 
of an open book. Was she praying 1 It seemed so. James 
heard her say, " Oh, turn unto me, and have mercy upon 
me ! Give Thy strength unto Thy servant, and save the 
son of Thine handmaid ! " 

He opened the door, and feebly went in. " Mother ! " was 
all he had strength to say ; but the next moment his head 
was upon her bosom, and she was showering gentle kisses 
upon his hot forehead. 

God had brought the widow's son back to her. It was 
evident that he was very ill, but he had come to the right 
place to be nursed back to health again. It took longer to 
do it than she expected. He was ill for three months, 
and during the whole of the time his mother tended and 
nursed him as only loving mothers can. 

But she was distressed to find that his desire to go to sea 



A TOW-FA Til BOY. 173 

had not left him. He was still dreaming of blue waters, 



and gliding ships, and foreign lands. 

"You will have to let me go, mother," he said one day. 
"I shall never rest if you do not." 

" We will see about that when you are well enough," she 
said gently. "You must not go at present, for what would 
you do if you had another attack of ague, and no mother to 
nurse you 1 " 

" That would be rather bad," said James. 

11 1 have thought it all over," said Mrs. Garfield. " I 
think it would be a good plan for you to go to school this 
spring ; and then^ with another term in the Fall, you may 
be able to teach next winter. Would you not like to teach 
in the winters, and work on the canal or the lake in the 
summers 1 You would have occupation all the year round, 
and the change would be pleasant." 

James smiled. 

"You have set your heart on making me a scholar, 
mother," he said ; " but I am afraid you will never do it." 

" Indeed I hope you will be, James." 

" But it would cost money, mother." 

" I have saved a little, which I would gladly give you for 
that purpose." 

" It would be too bad to take your money, mother ; and, 
besides, I am so big to go to school. All the rest would 
laugh at me." 

" My dear boy, supposing they did ! It would not hurt 
you. If you were honestly trying to do your duty, and 
prepare yourself for a distinguished future, you would be 
far more noble than those who sneered, if there were any 
mean enough to do it ; but I do not think there would be." 

" I am so very ignorant, mother." 

" But you like books. And, James, before your father 
died, he said he wanted his little one to be a scholar. I 
have longed for it all your life, and prayed for it too." 



174 NEW WORLD HEROES. 

Such words as these could not but affect the young man j 
and their power was deepened by another influence which 
at that time was brought to bear upon him. His uncle 
Amos added his words to Mrs. Garfield's ; and Mr. Samuel 
Bates, a Baptist preacher, visited the house and talked most 
earnestly to James. 

" Boys as old and as ignorant as you, James, have become 
good and great by perseverance and industry. The first 
thing for you to do is to get an education. I will help you 
while you are too weak to go away ; and then I hope you 
will set your mind on a college education. It will be 
difficult, but it is not impossible." 

" I will try," said James at last ; and he meant it. 

There was in the town of Chester, about twelve miles from 
Orange (the village which had come into existence where 
the Garfields lived), a school of higher grade than most, 
called the " Geauga Seminary ; " and it was towards this 
that James's heart began to turn. Mr. Bates had been a 
student there ; and he talked of the advantages of attending 
it with so much enthusiasm, that James quite longed to 
become a scholar at Geauga. 

" You must go," said Thomas, his brother ; and his 
sisters, Mehetable and Mary, echoed the words. But it was 
not easy to see how it could be managed, though they were 
resolved that if possible it should be done. 

" When you have settled how to do it," said Uncle 
Amos, " I shall see what I can do for my son Henry. He 
will have to work and earn the money to pay for it as well 
as James." 

After a time James had an unusually profitable job of 
carpentering ; and having by this means obtained a few 
dollars to begin with, he resolved to start on his search for 
an education. 

Conwell, who had the account from one who was in the 
Geauga Seminary, thus describes their style of living : — 



A TOW-PATH BOY. 175 

"There were three of them in one room — James, his 
cousin Henry Boynton, and Orren Judd. The room was 
about ten feet wide and twelve feet long, and was in a 
farm house near the academy. They selected that room 
because it was cheaper than those which were let in the 
academy building, and for that same reason the three boys 
occupied one room. With the two narrow beds, their cook- 
stoves, boxes, and three chairs, there was but little room 
for themselves. They divided up the work, and each 
alternately prepared the meals for the day. When the fire 
was burning in the old box stove, which had but one cover, 
the heat frequently drove out all but the cook. 

" Their meals, however, were often cold, and for many 
weeks their only diet consisted of mush and milk. When 
the bread from home gave out, the supply being renewed 
nearly every week, they returned invariably to hasty 
pudding, or corn-cakes and molasses. They were at the 
academy to study and not to cook. To keep alive was the 
only object in eating at all ; and whenever they were com- 
pelled to eat, they did it with despatch, and returned to 
their books. Near the end of their second term the boys 
became very much dissatisfied with their board, and made 
up their minds that boarding themselves was not a success- 
ful enterprise. James is said to have thrown down his 
spoon one day as he finished his dish of molasses and 
pudding, saying, * I won't eat anymore of that stuff if I 
starve.'" 

Kirke says — "When the summer vacation came, he took 
a job of chopping one hundred cords of wood for twenty-five 
dollars, and with the fund thus realised he was in the Fall 
able to board with one of the neighbouring families, and so 
dispense with the drudgery of housekeeping. The price he 
paid for board, lodging, and washing, was one dollar and 
six cents per week. His landlady was a Mrs. Stiles ; and 
after Garfield had become somewhat distinguished she was 



176 NEW WORLD HEROES. 

fond of relating an incident connected with his residence in 
her family. The young man was without overcoat or 
underclothing, and had only one suit of clothes, and those 
were of cheap Kentucky jean. Towards the close of the 
term his trousers had worn exceedingly thin at the knees, 
and on one occasion, when he was bending forward, they 
tore half way round the leg, exposing his bare knees to 
view. The mortified young man pinned the rent garment 
together as well as he could, and to the family that night 
bewailed his poverty, and his inability to remedy the 
misfortune to his only pair of trousers. " Why, that is easy 
enough," said the good Mrs. Stiles. " You go to bed, and 
one of the boys will bring down your trousers, and I will 
darn the hole so that it will be better than new. You 
shouldn't care for such small matters. You will forget all 
about them when you get to be President." 

The author adds, " The good lady is still alive to see her 
prediction verified." 

One great thing in James Garfield's favour was, that he 
was strong and in excellent health. Nothing hurt the 
frame, made vigorous by hard fare and constant exercise. 
And that which he had undergone had prepared him for his 
future position and work. It is a mistake to suppose that 
a youth spent in indigent circumstances is necessarily bad 
for any one. Those who have to "rough it" in their 
boyhood are frequently receiving the exact training neces- 
sary for the demands of their manhood. How many of 
the great men, both of England and America, were poor 
boys we can scarcely estimate ; but one thing that poverty 
helps to secure, is health ; and health is the best qualifica- 
tion for a good start in life that any one can have. 







^s^> 



CHAPTER IV. 



THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST. 



Awake to the call, and prepare for the strife 
That all men must face on the great field of life ; 
The armour to wear is the armour of light, 
And the King to be served is the Lord in His mieht. 




T has been said that James Garfield owed more 
than a little to the splendid health which he 
enjoyed. An amusing story, which throws somo 



upon 
young man. 



the character and 

is told in Kirke's life of him. 



habits of thought of the 



Hearing that 



Dr. Robison was in the neighbourhood, he went to consult 
him. 

"Doctor," he said, "I want to go in for a college 
education — but first I want to be sure that T have the 
necessary strength of body. It would be useless to begin 
the work and then find that my strength failed. "Will you 
examine me, and tell me candidly what you think 1 " 

" Certainly," said the doctor. " What is your name 1 " 

"James Garfield." 

" I knew your mother. I am glad you mean to be a 
scholar." 

b 12 



178 NEW WORLD HEROES. 

The doctor then examined the young man, and after 
wards gave this account of the affair : — 

11 1 felt as if I was on my sacred honour, and the young 
man looked as if he felt himself on trial. I had had 
considerable experience as a physician, but here was a case 
much different from any other I had ever had. I felt that 
it must be handled with great care. I examined his head, 
and saw that there was a magnificent brain there. I sounded 
his lungs, and found that they were strong, and capable of 
making good blood. I felt his pulse, and saw that there 
was an engine capable of sending the blood up to the head 
to feed the brain. I had seen many strong physical 
systems with warm feet, but cold, sluggish brain; and 
those who possessed such systems would simply sit around 
and doze. Therefore, I was anxious to know about the 
kind of an engine to run that delicate machine, the brain. 
At the end of a careful examination of this kind, which 
lasted fifteen minutes, we rose, and I said, ' Go on, follow 
the leadings of your ambition, and ever after I am your 
friend. You have the brain of a Webster, and you have 
the physical proportions that will back you in the most 
herculean efforts. All you need to do is to work, work 
hard — do not be afraid of over-working — and you will make 
your mark.' " 

Thus fortified and encouraged, James Garfield did work as 
few before have done, with avidity, perseverance, and success. 

He was all the time under the necessity of providing for 
his own livelihood as well as gaining an education — and the 
result of this was that he had sometimes to leave his 
studies and betake himself to manual labour. The spirit 
in which he did his work, and the kind of work he did, was 
thus described by an old American who knew him : — 

" His conscience kinder went ahead on him inter his 
work, and ye could allers trust him to do any job, hoein', 
rakin', hewin', planin', teaching or any other thing, fur 



"THE DISCIPLES OF CIiniST." 179 

he'd feel much the muss cf he left any on't as it hadn't 
dorter be. He didn't cover up nothin' he'd spiled, and he'd 
work just as fast if the man who paid him warn't around. 
He was right- up-and-down squar ! ' " 

At one time lie arranged to live with a carpenter in the 
village, and earn enough by working at the bench on Satur- 
days, and every possible leisure hour in the week, to pay 
for his board and lodging. This he did, and so hard did 
he work that one day he planed fifty-one boards. 

After that he tried to get an engagement as a teacher, 
but failed. The persons to whom he applied all thought 
him too young. He was very much cast down by this 
failure, and was wondering what he should do next, when 
early one morning he heard a man calling to his mother — 

" Widow Garfield, where's your boy Jem 1 " 

" He is here, at home ; do you want him 1 " 

•' Yes, I do. I wonder if he wouldn't like to teach our 
school at the Ledge 1 " 

The Ledge was a mile away, and James knew it well. 
He appeared on the scene with a new light in his eyes. 

" You haven't had a school at the Ledge for two winters, 
have you 1 " he asked the neighbour, who had kindly made 
the offer. 

" No, and I guess you know the reason. The big boys at 
the school are awful to manage. They have mastered the 
masters twice, so we've had to shut up the school." 

"It does not sound very promising for a youngster." 

''No. It is not of the least use for you to come unless 
you mean to make up your mind beforehand to lick them. 
Can you lick them ? " 

" I guess I could, if I tried." 

"Will you try, then?" 

" Do you think I am old enough? Will the boys take 
advantage of my age 1 " 

" Oh, yes, they are sure to do that, if you let them. But 



180 NEW WORLD HEROES. 

I suppose yon can take your own part ; if not, you know 
they will lick you." 

" I will talk to my Uncle Amos about it. If he advises 
me to take it, I will do so." 

11 Very good ; and I hope you will. The boys have been 
more than a match for the old men ; perhaps they will treat 
you with more respect." 

When the neighbour had gone, James turned to his 
mother. 

"What do you think of it, mother V 

"I think you could do it, but you would find it very 
hard work." 

"I would not mind how hard it was, if I could only do 
it." 

"Here comes Uncle Amos; ask him." 

Mr. Boynton took a little time to consider the pro- 
position, but finally came to this conclusion — 

"You may as well go and try it. You will go into the 
school as the boy ' Jim Garfield ; ' but I hope you will come 
out of it as Mr. Garfield the schoolmaster." 

So James decided to accept the post. He was to have 
twelve dollars a-month, and to board around among the 
parents. He found the duties trying enough ; and he had 
a hard struggle with the bovs before he became master. 
They thought at first that it would be an easy matter to 
dispose of the young teacher, whom they all knew, and who 
had been brought up among them ; but they gradually dis- 
covered their mistake. There were several fights, but 
Garfield always won the victory. One young bully, who 
had been rather severely flogged, tried to brain the young 
teacher by striking him with a billet of wood ; but he was 
immediately afterwards felled to the floor by the strong 
hand of his conqueror. 

Conwell says, in regard to this experience — " That school 
was a difficult one to control, and was noted for its unruly 



"THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST: 1 181 

boys. James was an enthusiast then on the subject of 
learning, and took the most eager interest in all the 
lessons of the school. He was also a believer in good order, 
and in his ability to maintain it. It is told of him that 
several of the boys, led by a stubborn young giant, at- 
tempted to conduct themselves unseemly during the school 
hours, and engaged in open rebellion. When the rebellion 
was crushed, which was not long after the teacher set about 
it, there were several sore heads, a giant with a lame 
back, and the most perfect decorum throughout the school- 
room." 

It was about this time that James Garfield joined the 
" Church of the Disciples," of which his mother was a mem- 
ber. She had often before urged him to do so, but the young 
man would not be hurried. He knew that the impulse 
should come, not from without, but from within. 

" When I quite see my way, mother, I will be only too 
glad to do it." 

At last, with his whole soul on the side of righteousness 
and truth, he was baptised. 

The "Church of the Disciples" professed to have no 
creed, to be fettered by no traditions, and trammelled by no 
laws save those of the Bible. One of their doctrines was, 
that any one who could preach, might, and ought to do so. 
All were supposed to have an equal share in this religious 
community ; and every member was supposed to have per- 
fect freedom of opinion and action, so long as both were in 
accordance with the revealed Christ. This church, there- 
fore, exactly suited the independent character of James 
Garfield, who speedily became the outspoken champion of 
religious freedom in its utter reality. He was courageous 
in discussion ; and the fact of the persecution which other 
sects exercised towards the Disciples only made him 
the stronger and more resolute in the defence of that 
which he held to be taught in the Bible. The opposition 



182 NEW WORLD HEROES. 

was carried to great length, and all the more determined 
was James Garfield to uphold the right. He was at this 
time about twenty years old. One who often heard him 
speak thus described him :— 

" As a popular speaker he has few equals ; even his 
scholarly and thoughtful manner is forgiven him in view of 
his earnestness, directness, and honesty of speech. He does 
not stab his opponents whenever he detects a weak place in 
their armour, and then play with the wounds he has 
succeeded in making. He indulges in no fantastic or over- 
strained flights of exaggerated rhetoric ; and he wants also 
the nervous energy, the word-and-a-blow manner, which 
sometimes makes other speakers so effective. But he is 
none the less a very successful orator, and wins his way to 
the favour and conscience of his audience when all his 
rivals fail." 

It was sometimes said of Garfield that he became a 
minister of the gospel. This is not the case. He did 
occasionally preach, as many other young men connected 
with the Disciples' Church did, but he never intended to 
become a preacher. 

All this time he was poor. Some years afterwards, when 
he had entered the political field, old stories to his discredit 
were told ; and among the rest the Troy Press published an 
assertion that he had gone into debt for his clothes, and been 
dunned for the money. It mentioned the name of the 
creditor, Mr. Peter S. Haskell — who, however, hastened to 
deny its truth in the following letter, published in the Troy 
Times : — 

" It is true I made a suit of clothes for Mr. Garfield 
when he was preaching and teaching in Poestenkill, in this 
county. He was then a poor young man, struggling to 
obtain an education. One of my customers came to me and 
said, * There is a young man in the village who wants a suit of 
clothes. He cannot pay for them now, but you will get 



"THE DISCIPLES OF CUEIST." 183 

your money. Will you make them for him 1 ' I replied that 
I would. In a day or two Mr. Garfield came in, told me his 
circumstances and the amount of time he would require to 
pay for the clothes. In exact accordance with his agree- 
ment he paid me, and I did not have to jog his memory in 
order to get my money. I regard James A. Garfield as an 
honest, truthful man." 

It was at this time that James Garfield became acquainted 
with a young lady, the daughter of a farmer in the neigh- 
bourhood, whose name was Lucretia Rudolph, and this 
acquaintanceship ripened into love. She is described as " a 
quiet, thoughtful girl, of singularly sweet and refined dis- 
position, fond of study and reading, and possessing a warm 
heart, and a mind capable of steady growth." 

This young lady brought the poetry into the life of James 
Garfield that it needed : henceforth there was another 
inducement added to the rest in the heart of the young 
man, who meant to make his way in the world, and especially 
to become a scholar. 




CHAPTER V. 



AT HIRAM AS A STUDENT. 



" And first, with nicest skill and art, 
Perfect and finished in every part, 
A little model the master wrought, 
"Which should be to the larger plan 
"What the child is to the man — 
Its counterpart in miniature." 




VERY one in England 



Hiram Academy 
James Garfield. Hiram is 
that elevated line where the 



— Longfellow. 
who in future hears of 
will at once associate it with 
small town, lying 



close to that elevated line where the waters divide, one 
part flowing southward to the Ohio river, and the other 
northward to Lake Erie. It was here, where the Disciples 
had a large and influential church, that they resolved to 
locate their own seminary. It was beautifully situated. 
" The spectator looks down upon fields of grain and tracks 
of woodland, and away to hills and forests, with glimpses of 
the neatest farm-houses in the country, and of clustered 
dwellings in the distant villages, adding the romance of art 
to the attractions of nature. So varied is the landscape, and 
so serenely quiet seems everything in sight, that the beholders 



AT I11RAM AS A STUDENT. 185 

stand and gaze, and gaze again, with inexhaustible satisfac- 
tion. It is one of those sweet and quiet retreats, whoso 
embowered walks and shady lawns seem most consistent 
with a thoughtful mood and a virtuous mind. Strikingly 
suggestive of the sylvan shades of antiquity, in the shape of 
the hills and the verdure of the trees, the college seems to 
be a part of the natural landscape." 

Mr. Zeb Rudolph, the father of Miss Lucretia, already 
mentioned, was one of the founders of the college, and the 
young lady herself was a student in the institution. 

James Garfield first presented himself before the Board 
of Trustees at a time when the members of the Board were 
holding a session with closed doors. The door-keeper 
entered the room, and said, " A young man at the door is 
very desirous to see the Board without delay." 

" Let him come in." 

James Garfield entered, and announced his business. 

" Gentlemen, I want an education, and should like the 
privilege of making the fires and sweeping the floors of 
the building to pay part of my expenses." 

The gentlemen looked at the tall, plainly dressed youth } 
and noted his shock of yellow hair, his good-natured coun- 
tenance, and his plainly made clothes. 

Mr. Williams, one of the number, was pleased with his 
frankness and earnestness, and he said — " Gentlemen, I 
think we had better try this young man." 

The others, however, were more doubtful. 

" How do we know, young man," said one, " that the 
work may be done as we may want ?" 

"Try me," said James. "Try me for two weeks, and if 
the work is not done to your satisfaction I will retire with- 
out a word." 

So they agreed that they would try him, and the result 
was satisfactory. He rang the bell to call the teachers 
and students in the morning, and when it wa3 time for 



186 NEW WORLD HEROES. 

them to begin their work. The floor was always clean that 
he had swept, and he was never behind with his duties. 
He became one of the most popular persons in the 
academy. He had a pleasant word for every one, and 
every one liked him. He was witty and quick at repartee, 
and his jokes were often brilliant and striking, but they 
were never ill-natured. He was always good-natured and 
kindly. He had excellent conversatibnal powers, and was 
very entertaining. He had always some poetry to recite, 
for he was fond of it and had a retentive memory. He 
seldom spent time in the playground ; he was too much in 
earnest in regard to his studies to care for amusements. A 
lady, who was at the college with him, said — "He was 
almost too industrious, and too anxious to make the utmost 
of his opportunities to study." The same lady says — " At 
the institute the members were like a band of brothers 
and sisters, all struggling to advance in knowledge. They 
all dressed plainly, and there was no attempt or pretence at 
dressing stylishly or fashionably. Hiram was a little 
country place, with no fascinations or worldly attractions 
to draw off the minds of the students from their work. 
Two churches, the post office, one store, and a blacksmith's 
shop, with the college buildings, constituted the village." 

The aims which the founders had in establishing the 
school were thus described in the Centennial History of 
Education in Ohio : — 

" The aims of the school were both general and special ; 
more narrowly they were these — 

" (1.) To provide a sound, scientific, and literary education. 

" (2.) To temper and sweeten such education with moral 
and Scriptural knowledge. 

" (3.) To educate young men for the ministry. 

" One peculiar tenet of the religious movement in which 
it originated was impressed upon the Eclectic Institute at 
its organisation. The Disciples believed that the Bible had 



AT II IRA M AS A STUDENT. 187 

been in a degree obscurated by the theological and ecclesias- 
tical systems. Hence, their religious movement was a revolt 
from the theology of the schools, and an overture to men to 
come face to face with the Scriptures. They believed also, 
that to the holy writings belonged a larger place in general 
culture than had yet been accorded to them. Accordingly, 
in all their educational institutions they have emphasised 
the Bible and its related branches of knowledge. This may 
be called the distinctive feature of their schools. The 
charter of the Eclectic Institute, therefore, declared the 
purpose of the institution to be — The instruction of youth 
of both sexes in the various branches of literature and 
science, especially of moral science, as based on the facts and 
precepts of the Holy Scriptures. 

" The institute rose at once to a high degree of popularity. 
On the opening day, eighty-four students were in attend- 
ance ; and soon the number rose to two or three hundred 
per term. Students came from a wide region of country. 
Ohio furnished the larger number ; but there was a libera' 
patronage from Canada, New York, and Pennsylvania. A 
considerable number came from the Southern States, and a 
still larger from the Western. These students differed 
widely in age, ability, culture, and wants. Some received 
grammar school instruction, while others still pushed 
on far into the regular college course. Classes were 
organised and taught in the collegiate studies, as they 
were called, for language, mathematics, literature, science, 
philosophy, and history. No degrees were conferred, and 
no students were graduated. After they had mastered the 
English studies, students were allowed a wide range of 
choice. The principle of election had free course. A course 
of study was published in the catalogue after the first year 
or two ; but it was rather a list of studies taught as they 
were called for than a curriculum that students pretended 
closely to follow." 



188 KEW WORLD HEROES. 

The writer of this sketch was Professor B. A. Hinsdale, 
who has since given to the world a beautiful book — 
The Hiram College Memorial of Fresident Garfield. The 
following occurs in it : — 

"An obvious and interesting analogy between the school 
and the pupil could be readily traced out. Both were in 
the formative period ; both were full of strength and enthu- 
siasm : but both needed growth and ripeness. He was 
strong-framed, deep-chested, six feet high, with a blue eye, 
and a massive head surmounted by a shock of tow-coloured 
hair. Physically he was the Garfield of twenty years 
later, only he had the pulpy adolescence of twenty. Time 
had not yet rounded out his figure, browned and thinned 
his hair, and put into his face the lines of thought. The 
school was growing, and he was growing. His intellectual 
and moral qualities had already declared themselves. 
Having lost his father in his infancy, and having been 
thrown upon his own resources at an early age, in the 
midst of the pioneers of Ohio, his sense of responsibility, 
his judgment, and his self-helpfulness, were developed much 
beyond the average. He was full of animal spirits and 
young joviality; but he had had his ear upon the human 
heart, and had heard its reverberatory murmur in the minor 
key. Two years or more before he had finished the studies 
of the Orange District School. At Chester, O., where he 
had attended Geauga Seminary four terms in 1849 and 
1850, he had studied natural philosophy, algebra, and 
botany, and begun Latin and Greek. He had taught 
District School two terms, and received a full measure of 
the benefit which comes from that valuable discipline. He 
had already put his early longings for the lake and the sea 
behind him, and had determined to have the best education 
he could obtain. His coming to Hiram was the next step 
toward carrying out this resolution." 

Soon after he entered the college he became acquainted 



AT HIRAM AS A STUDENT. 189 

with a lady who exercised a strong personal influence upon 
him, and of whom he always spoke with the greatest venera 
tion and gratitude — Miss Almeda A. Booth, a woman of 
great ability. "She was only nine years his senior; but 
she concentrated upon him all the impassioned force of a 
strong maternal soul, and she led him to intellectual heights 
seldom trod by any but the highest intellects." 

Garfield thus described his first glimpse of her : — 

"A few days after the beginning of the term, I saw a 
class of three reciting in mathematics — geometry, I think. 
They sat on one of the red benches, in the centre aisle of 
the lower chapel. I had never seen geometry; and in 
regarding both teacher and class with a feeling of reveren- 
tial awe for the intellectual heights to which they had 
climbed, I studied their faces so closely that I seem to see 
them now as distinctly as I saw them then." 

He afterwards said of her : — 

" On my own behalf, I take this occasion to say, that for 
her generous and powerful aid, so often and so efficiently 
rendered, for her quick and never-failing sympathy, and for 
her intelligent, unselfish, and unswerving friendship, I owe 
her a debt of gratitude and affection, for the payment of 
which the longest term of life would have been too short." 

Miss Booth was one of the teachers in the college ; and 
although James Garfield was not much in her class, she yet 
helped him very considerably. He once said to Mr. Kirke, 
" I never met the man whose mind I feared to grapple 
with ; but this woman could lead where I found it hard to 
follow." Kirke adds — "She not only guided his studies, but 
she shared in them as a comrade and co-worker; and a 
friend relates how she sat with him after school one night, 
taking up a thesis he was preparing for an exhibition day, 
both so supremely absorbed in the work that neither 
realised the night had worn away till the morning light 
came breaking through the window." 



190 NEW WORLD HEROES. 

The two often talked together of their future. " I intend 
to go to college," Garfield would say, and Miss Booth was 
of the same mind. The learning they had made them both 
wish for more. They longed to climb the heights and 
delve into the depths of knowledge; and the one helped 
the other on. 

Before Garfield left Hiram for college he was appointed a 
teacher; and so satisfactorily had Loth he and his friend done 
their work, that when they left they received a distinguished 
mark of the approbation of the college authorities. 

Professor Hinsdale thus writes : — 

" His early engagement as a teacher may point to a cer- 
tain rawness in the school. However that may be, the pupil 
lost nothing, but gained much. That the engagement was 
of great value to him all will admit, who hold with the 
ancients and with the founders of the European Universities, 
that teaching is essential to the progress and perfection of 
the scholar, hi this respect Hiram gave him an advantage 
that an older school, with a higher standard and more 
conventionality, could not have given. The two years 
following he taught arithmetic, grammar, algebra, penman- 
ship, geometry, and classes in classics. He handled largo 
classes in the English studies with conspicuous power. He 
took captive the members of his classes. He won the 
students as a body. His pupils and fellow-students had a 
great deal to say about him, as well as much to write in 
their letters, and the result was, that he made a deep 
impression, both directly and indirectly, upon the patrons 
of the school generally. The managers of the institute saw 
that his services would be most desirable when he had 
finished his own studies. He and Miss Booth left college at 
the same time. As they took their leave — he to return 
in two years, and she in one— the Board adopted this 
resolution : — 

" In view of the faithfulness and service to the institution 



AT HIRAM AS A STUDENT. 



191 



of James A. Garfield and Almeda Booth, we recommend 
to appropriate to each fifty dollars in addition to their 
salaries." 

The log-cabin boy was winning his way. He was conquer- 
ing, one by one, the difficulties of his position. He was 
fighting in a good conflict, and going not only onward, but 
upward in a straight course. He had made his choice now, 
and was so living as to fill his mother's heart with joy, and 
give promise of future greatness. 

" How much better is it to get wisdom than gold ! 
Understanding is a well-spring of life unto him that hath 
it." 








^s^pp^ 



CHAPTER VI. 

IN COLLEGE, AND PRESIDENT OF HIRAM. 

"Dear Alma Mater, long as stand, 
Like pillars of our native land, 
These everlasting hills, 
Thy grateful children shall proclaim 
In every clime thy growing fame." 




HE additional fifty dollars generously presented to 
James Garfield were exceedingly useful to him ; 
for he hesitated long in regard to his collegiate 
course for lack of means. In a talk which he had with his 
mother, he mentioned a plan that had come into his head. 

" Uncle Thomas has been getting rich, has he not, 
mother?" he asked, as one day, during vacation, he and she 
walked in the apple-orchard, among the one hundred apple 
trees which his father had planted. 

"He has certainly appeared to thrive for the last few 
years," she answered. 

" Then, mother, I think I shall ask him to lend me the 
necessary money to go to college with. I don't like bor- 
rowing ; but if I could go now for a couple of years, and 



PRESIDENT OF HIRAM. 193 

graduate, it would be the making of nie. Do you think 
uncle would do it 1 " 

" I cannot tell, my son ; but I think it is likely that he 
would. There would be no harm in asking him." 

" I mean to insure my life in a Life Assurance Company, 
mcl then give the policy to uncle as security." 

"That would be very fair. I hope you will succeed, 
Fames. It is wonderful how you have been helped onward 
md upward, is it not 1 " 

" Yes, it is ; and by God's help I will get further yet. 
3h, mother, I am very glad and thankful that you talked 
he out of my foolish desire to go to sea, and persuaded me 
o try to get an education. It is of greater worth than a 
ortune to me ; only I want to improve myself more and 
nore. Nothing is so pleasant as mounting the steps of 
earning." 

" I knew you would find it so, James ; and we cannot tell 
vhat position in life you may yet fill. God has been very 
jood to you hitherto, and He may be preparing you for 
omething of which you have never dreamed." 

11 Nothing can be better than to do the present thing as 
veil as I can, mother." 

" No, my son ; and then wait to see the development of 
vents." 

"That is what I will try to do." 

"Go on as you have begun. That you should be so 
espected at Hiram is a great joy to your mother, who has 
lever forgotten to pray for you." 

"And it may be to your prayers that I owe all my 
uccess." 

The money that was necessary to enable James Garfield 

o go through his college course was provided by a worthy 

entleman who had watched his progress with interest. The 

ife insurance policy was handed to him with the words, " If 

live, I shall pay you ; and if I die, you will suffer no loss." 

b 13 



194 NEW WORLD HEROES. 

The money having been found, the next thing was to 
decide upon which college to choose. There was a college of 
his denomination at Bethany ; but he decided not to go there, 
and explained his reasons in a letter to a friend : — 

" After thinking it all over, I have made up my mind to 
go to Williamstown, Massachusetts. There are three reasons 
why I have decided not to go to Bethany. 1st. The course 
of study is not so extensive or thorough as in Eastern 
colleges. 2nd. Bethany leans too heavily towards slavery. 
3rd. I am the son of Disciple parents, am one myself, and 
have had but little acquaintance with people of other views ; 
I having always lived in the West, I think it will make me 
more liberal, both in my religious and general views and 
sentiments, to go into a new circle, where I shall be under 
new influence. These considerations led me to conclude to 
go to some New England college. I, therefore, wrote to 
the President of Brown University, Yale, and Williams, 
setting forth the amount of study I had done, and asking 
how lon£ it would take me to finish their course. The 
answers are now before me. All tell me I can graduate in 
two years. They are all brief, business notes ; but President 
Hopkins concludes with this sentence : ' If you come here, 
we shall be glad to do what we can for you.' Other things 
being so nearly equal, this sentence, which seems to be a 
kind of friendly grasp of the hand, has settled that question 
for me. I shall start for Williams next week." 

He accordingly said good-bye to his mother, and to his 
friend and former class-companion, Miss Lucre tia Rudolph, 
and went to college. 

The students at once dubbed him the " Ohio giant," for 
he was so tall as to be head and shoulders above most of 
them. He was the picture of health and strength ; and his 
" broad shoulders, large face, bright blue eyes, and brown 
hair," made him interesting to them all. But there is some 
difference of opinion in regard to his appearance. 



PRESIDENT OF II IE AM. 195 

Edmund Kirke says : — " By those who knew Garfield at 
this time he is described as a tall, awkward youth, with a 
great shock of light hair rising nearly erect from a broad, 
high forehead, and an open, kindly, and thoughtful face, 
which showed no traces of his long struggle with poverty 
and privation. His class-mates will speak of his prodigious 
industry ; his cordial, hearty, and social ways ; and the great 
zeal with which he entered into all the physical exercises of 
the students. He soon became distinguished as the most 
ready and effective debater in the college ; and one occasion 
on which he displayed these peculiar abilities is specially 
mentioned. Charles Summer had been stricken down in 
the Senate Chamber by Brooks of South Carolina, and the 
news reaching the college, caused great excitement among 
the students. An indignation meeting was that evening 
held among them ; and mounting the platform, Garfield — 
so says my informant, who was himself one of the students 
— delivered ' one of the most eloquent and impassioned 
speeches that was ever heard in old Williams.' " 

Whitelaw Reid, in his Ohio in the War, speaks thus of 
Garfield at Williams College : — " The western carpenter and 
village school-teacher received many a shock in the new 
sphere in which he now entered. On every hand he was 
made to feel the social superiority of his fellow students. 
Their ways were free from the little awkward habits of the 
labouring untrained youth. Their speech was free from 
the uncouth phrases of the provincial circles in which he 
had moved. Their toilets made the handiwork of his 
village tailor look sadly shabby. Their freehanded expen- 
ditures contrasted strikingly with his enforced parsimony. 
To some tough-fibred hearts these would have been only 
petty annoyances ; to the warm, social, generous mind of 
young Garfield they seem, from more than one indication of 
his college life that we can gather, to have been a source of 
positive anguish. But he bore bravely up, maintained the 



196 NEW WORLD HEROES. 

advanced standing in the junior class to which he had 
been admitted on his arrival, and at the end of his two 
years' course bore off the metaphysical honour of the class, 
which was reckoned at Williams College among the highest 
within the gift of the institution to her graduating 
members." 

One of the letters written by Garfield to his friend when 
in Williams College, and just recovering from an illness, is 
interesting. It is dated — 

"Williams College, 10th August 1854. 
" My Dear Sir — I have been down near to the gates of 
the ' Silent City ' since last I wrote to you. Perhaps it 
were better had I entered — God knoweth. But the crisis is 
passed, and I am slowly returning now. Your kind, good 
letter was received to-day, and I will respond immediately. 
I think I told you in my other that I had taken cold nearly 
every night since I came, and had had a severe headache 
for about ten days. However, I kept on studying until 
Friday, the 4th, when the hot water streamed from my 
eyes so that I could not see, and I was obliged to stop 
and send for a physician. . . . Oh, how much I have 
felt the absence of dear friends during these long, dreary 
hours of pain ! I must subjoin some lines that have 
been ringing through the chambers of my soul ; and though 
I do not know the name of the author, yet they possess 
the elements of immortality. I know you will love them 
and feel them : — 

' Commend me to the friend that comes 

When I am sad and lone, 
And makes the anguish of my heart 

The suffering of his own ; 
Who coldly shuns the glittering throng, 

And pleasure's gay levee, 
And comes to gild a sombre hour, 

And give his heart to me. 



PRESIDENT OF HIRAM. 197 

' He hears me count my sorrows o'er, 

And when the task is clone, 
He freely gives me all I ask — 

A sigh for every one. 
He cannot wear a smiling face 

When mine is touched with gloom, 
But, like the violet, seeks to cheer 

The midnight with perfume. 

1 Commend me to that generous heart, 

Which, like the pine on high, 
Uplifts the same unvarying brow 

To every change of sky ; 
Whose friendship does not fade away 

When wintry tempests blow, 
But like the winter's icy crown, 

Looks greener through the snow. 

' He flies not with the flitting stork, 

That seeks a southern sky, 
But lingers where the wounded bird 

Hath laid him down to die. 
Oh, such a friend ! he is in truth, 

Whate'er his lot may be, 
A rainbow on the storm of life, 

An anchor on its sea.' 

" Thank God, I enjoy such friends as that, though they are 
not with me. But I must stop. ... I need not say I am, 
as ever, your brother, "James." 

A pleasant circumstance occurred during one of the 
vacations which he spent in college. He had the free use 
of the college library. He had never read a line of 
Shakespeare, excepting the extracts which he had seen in 
school reading-books. Nor was he at all acquainted with 
the poets. He had voluntarily, at the age of eighteen, 
resolved to shun novel-reading. The Disciples thought it 
a wicked waste of time, and not compatible with the 
serious business of life. But during this holiday he read 



198 NEW WORLD HEROES. 

Shakespeare "from cover to cover," and then looked to 
see what the other poets had to say. He decided that 
he preferred Tennyson to any of them, and he revelled 
in the beautiful thoughts of the Laureate through all the 
holidays. 

During the second year, James Garfield joined the 
Philologian Society, and he became a debater of more than 
ordinary vigour. He studied Latin, and Greek, and German, 
which last he carried on so successfully that he could read 
Goethe and Schiller readily. During this year, too, he 
became one of the editors of The Williams Quarterly, a 
college magazine of high merit. 

It was during his last college term that he made his first 
political speech. Although he was now nearly twenty-five 
he had never voted ; but when the Republican party arose, 
and a strong feeling against slavery began to grow among 
them, he became interested in politics. 

He graduated in August 1858 with a class honour by 
President Hopkins, won by his essay on " The Seen and 
the Unseen." He left college with regret, and always spoke 
of President Hopkins with gratitude and veneration. 

In the meantime, a position in the Troy School, at an 
excellent salary, had been offered him : but if he had accepted 
it he could not have finished his college education, and he 
therefore declined it. But as soon as he was free, Hiram 
offered him a position as Principal, and though the salary 
was small, he accepted it. As he went away from the 
college he said of President Hopkins : — 

" Give me a log-hut, with only a simple bench, Mark 
Hopkins on one end and I on the other, and you may have 
all the buildings, apparatus, and libraries without him.'' 
And on another occasion he said, " I am surprised to meet 
President Hopkins — some thought or word of his — so often 
along the path of my life." 

President Hopkins closed the session with a sermon, of 



PRESIDE N'T OF III RAM. 199 

which these were the final words : — " Go to your posts \ 
take unto you the whole armour of God ; watch the 
signals and follow the footsteps of your Leader. That 
Leader is not now in the form of the Man of Sorrows ; 
not now does the sweat of agony rain from him. Him 
the armies of heaven follow ; and He hath on His vesture 
and on His thigh a name written, 'King of kings and 
Lord of lords.' The conflict may be long, but its issue is 
not doubtful. You may fall upon the field before the 
final peal of victory; but be ye faithful unto death, and 
ye shall receive a crown of life." 

One at least of the earnest listeners who caught and 
treasured the words of President Hopkins endeavoured to 
live in the spirit of them. 

James Garfield went to his work at Hiram College, firmly 
resolved that in righteousness and truth should be his 
strength. Whether or not he knew at that time that the 
motto of the Garfield coat-of-arms was Through faith I 
conquer, it was certainly the motto of his heart and life. 

A year after he became the President of Hiram Academy 
he was married to Lucretia Rudolph. They had been true 
to each other for many years, and patient also ; but now 
there was nothing to hinder their union, and accordingly the 
marriage took place at the home of the bride on the 11th 
November 1858. Garfield had now two helpers at Hiram, 
for Miss Booth was there too. Kirke says — " His wife 
proved herself a most efficient helpmate in his studies and 
college duties. His life now was a most laborious one, 
and he has often said that he could not have gone through 
with his work without her aid and that of his accom- 
plished friend, Miss Almeda Booth. At one time he 
delivered a course of lectures on geology, held debates on 
subjects of public interest, spoke frequently on Sundays, 
and heard the recitations of five or six classes every day, 
besides attending to all the financial affairs of the college, 



200 NEW WORLD HEROES. 

and studying for admission to the bar. But these glorious 
women followed him in all his studies, and shared his labours. 
When he had speeches to make, or lectures to deliver, 
they would ransack the library by day, collecting facts and 
marking books for reference, to be at night used in the 
preparation of his discourses." 

Connell says: — " After his marriage he continued to board 
in a very plain style, his wife being one of those notable 
young women whose pretty face and social position in no 
way interfered with her common-sense and her willingness 
to make her life conform to their financial circumstances. 
A kind Providence, which for his good had often left him 
to hardships and toil, most signally blessed his life through 
his mother and his wife. Both women had a great influence 
upon his later life. His wife, in her modesty, industry, 
economy, and intellectual keenness, was a treasure of incal- 
culable value to him in every walk of life; and on the day 
of their marriage the line can safely be drawn in his history, 
between the old rough, self-sacrificing struggle with adver- 
sity, and the new era of joy, prosperity, and fame." 

Hinsdale says — " His obligations to her in the wifely 
relation he strongly and beautifully recognised on all 
fitting occasions. Her great strength of character, long 
before known to private friends, was fully revealed to the 
world in the long tragedy that closed at Elberon, 19th 
September 1881. Mr. and Mrs. Garfield's domestic life 
was eminently happy and beautiful. After the war, 
Grandma Garfield, now known so pleasantly to the world 
as ' the little white-haired mother,' was generally a member 
of the family. They were a happy trio — a fond mother, a 
dutiful son and husband, a faithful daughter and wife. 
Both General and Mrs. Garfield were always conspicuous 
for private and domestic virtues, filial affection, unbroken 
troth, and parental love." 

Every one was glad that the Principal should be so happy 




WIDOW OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD. _ p ^ m 



PRESIDENT OF II I RAM. 



201 



in his private life. The boys loved him, and found in him 
a true friend. " Their minds began to open ; new aspira- 
tions began to stir in their hearts. Often these boys had 
troubles peculiarly their own. Some were poor ; somo 
were tethered to home; some wanted courage and self- 
reliance ; some tended to despondency. Mr. Garfield found 
them out. He remembered his own experience. He 
seemed to read by intuition a mind that teemed with new 
facts, ideas, and impressions, that was stirred by a new 
spirit and power, that sighed for wider and higher activity. 
These students he aided with his counsel and encourage- 
ment. A boy who wanted to study, and was poor, called 
out his full interest." 




CHAPTER VII. 

GARFIELD ON COLLEGE EDUCATION 

{( Sail on, nor fear to breast the sea, 
Our hearts, our hopes are all with thee." 




IHE following speech by the man whose life is 
before us is worth the earnest attention of all 
J|jj Englishmen interested in the great question of 
the education of the people of the future : — 

" Gentlemen of the Literary Society — I congratulate you 
on the significant fact, that the questions which most 
vitally concern your personal work are at this time rapidly 
becoming — indeed, have already become — questions of first 
importance to the whole nation. 

" In ordinary times we could scarcely find two subjects 
wider apart than the meditations of a school-boy, when he 
asks what he shall do with himself, and how he shall do it, 
and the forecastings of a great nation, when it studies the 
laws of its own life, and endeavours to solve the problem of 
its destiny. But now there is more than a resemblance 
between the nation's work and yours. If the two are not 
identical, they at least bear the relation of the whole to a 
part. 



G All FIELD ON COLLEGE EDUCATION. 203 

"The nation, having passed through the childhood of its 
history, and being about to enter upon a new life, based on 
a fuller recognition of the rights of manhood, has discovered 
that liberty can be safe only when the suffrage is illuminated 
by education. It is now perceived that the life and light 
of a nation are inseparable. Hence the Federal Government 
has established a National Department of Education, for 
the purpose of teaching young men and women how to be 
good citizens. 

" You, young gentlemen, having passed the limits of 
childhood, and being about to enter the larger world of 
manhood, with its manifold struggles and aspirations, are 
now confronted with the question, What must I do to tit 
myself most completely, not for being a citizen merely, but 
for being all that doth become a man, living in the full 
light of the Christian civilisation of America 1 Your 

o 

disenthralled and victorious country asks you to be 
educated for her sake, and the noblest aspirations of 
your being still more imperatively ask it for your own 
sake. 

" In the hope that I may aid you in solving some of these 
questions, I have chosen for my theme on this occasion 
1 The Course of Study in American Colleges, and its 
Adaptation to the Wants of our Time.' Before examin- 
ing any course of study, we should clearly apprehend the 
objects to be obtained by a liberal education. 

" In general, it may be said that the purpose of all study 
is twofold — to discipline our faculties, and to acquire know- 
ledge for the duties of life. It is happily provided in the 
constitution of the human mind, that the labour by which 
knowledge is acquired is the only means of disciplining the 
powers. It may be stated as a general rule, that if we 
compel ourselves to learn what we ought to know, and 
use it when learned, our discipline will take care of 
itself 



204 HEW WORLD HEROES. 

" Let us, then, inquire what kinds of knowledge should 
be the objects of a liberal education 1 Without adopting in 
full the classification of Herbert Spencer, it will be suffi- 
ciently comprehensive for my present purpose to propose 
the following kinds of knowledge, stated in the order of 
their importance : — 

" First, That knowledge which is necessary for the full 
development of our bodies and the preservation of our 
health. 

"Second, The knowledge of those principles by which 
the useful arts and industries are carried on and improved. 

" Third, That knowledge which is necessary to a full 
comprehension of our rights and duties as citizens. 

" Fourth, A knowledge of the intellectual, moral, 
religious, and aesthetic nature of man, and his relations 
to nature and civilisation. 

"Fifth, That special and thorough knowledge which is 
requisite for the particular profession or pursuit which a 
man may choose as his life-work after he has completed his 
college studies. 

" In brief, the student should study himself, his relations 
to society, to nature, and to art ; and, above all, in all, and 
through all these, he should study the relations of himself, 
society, nature, and art, to God, the Author of them all. 
Of course it is not possible, nor is it desirable, to confine 
the course of development exclusively to this order; for 
Truth is so related and correlated, that no department of 
her realm is wholly isolated. 

" We cannot learn much that pertains to the industry of 
society without learning something of the material world 
and the laws that govern it. 

" We cannot study nature profoundly without bringing 
ourselves into communion with the spirit of art which 
pervades and fills the universe. But what I suggest is, 
that we should make the course of study conform generally 



GARFIELD OF COLLEGE EDUCATION. 205 

to the order here indicated ; that the student shall first 
study that which he most needs to know ; that the order of 
his needs shall be the order of his work. Now, it will not 
be denied, that from the day the child's foot first presses 
the green turf till the day when, an old man, he is ready to 
be laid under it, there is not an hour in which he docs not 
need to know a thousand things in relation to his body — 
1 what he shall eat, what he shall drink, and wherewithal 
he shall be clothed.' Unprovided with that instinct which 
enables the lower animals to reject the noxious and select 
the nutritive, man must learn even the most primary truth 
that ministers to his self-preservation. If parents were 
themselves sufficiently educated, most of this knowledge 
might be acquired at the mother's knee ; but, by the 
strangest perversion and misdirection of the educational 
forces, these most essential elements of knowledge are more 
neglected than any other. 

" School committees would summarily dismiss the teacher 
who should have the good sense and courage to spend three 
days of each week with her pupils in the fields and woods, 
teaching them the names, peculiarities, and uses of rocks, 
trees, plants, and flowers, and the beautiful story of the 
animals, birds, and insects, which fill the world with life 
and beauty. They will applaud her for continuing to 
perpetrate that undefended and indefensible outrage upon 
the laws of physical and intellectual life, which keeps a 
little child sitting in silence, in a vain attempt to hold his 
mind to the words of a printed page, for six hours in a day. 
Herod was merciful, for he finished his slaughter of the 
innocents in a day ; but this practice kills by the savagery 
of slow torture. And what is the child directed to study ? 
Besides the mass of words and sentences which he is com- 
pelled to memorise, not one syllable of which he under- 
stands, at eight or ten years of age he is set to work on 
English grammar — one of the most complex, intricate, and 



206 NEW WORLD HEROES. 

metaphysical of studies, requiring a mind of much muscle 
and discipline to master it. Thus are squandered— nay, far 
worse than squandered — those three precious years when 
the child is all ear and eye, when its eager spirit, with 
insatiable curiosity, hungers and thirsts to know the what 
and the why of the world and its wonderful furniture. We 
silence its sweet clamour by cramming its hungry mind 
with words — words, empty, meaningless words. It asks 
for bread and we give it a stone. It is to me a perpetual 
wonder that any child's love of knowledge survives the 
outrages of the schoolroom. It would be foreign from 
my present purpose to consider further the subject of 
primary education; but it is worthy your profoundest 
thought, for 'out of it are the issues of life.' That man 
will be a benefactor of his race who shall teach us how 
to manage rightly the first years of a child's education. 
I, for one, declare that no child of mine shall ever be 
compelled to study one hour, or to learn even the English 
alphabet, before he has deposited under his skin at least 
seven years of muscle and bone. 

" What are our seminaries and colleges accomplishing in 
the way of teaching the laws of life and physical well-being ') 
I should scarcely wrong them were I to answer nothing — 
absolutely nothing. The few recitations which some of the 
colleges require in anatomy and physiology unfold but the 
alphabet of those subjects. The emphasis of college culture 
does not fall there. The graduate has learned the Latin of 
the old maxim, "Mens sana in corpore sano ;" but how to 
strengthen the mind by the preservation of the body he has 
never learned. He can read you in Xenophon's best Attic 
Greek that Apollo flayed the unhappy Marsyas, and hanged 
up his skin as a trophy ; but he has never examined the 
wonderful texture of his own skin, or the laws by which lie 
may preserve it. He would blush to mistake the place of a 
Greek accent, or put the ictus on the second syllable of 



a Ann eld on college education. 207 

Eolus ; but the whole circle, " liberalium artium" so pom- 
pously referred to in his diploma of graduation, may not 
have been taught him, as I can testify in an instance per- 
sonally known to me, whether the jijunum is a bone, or the 
humerus an intestine. Every hour of study consumes a 
portion of his muscular and vital force. Every tissue of his 
body requires its appropriate nourishment, the elements of 
which are found in abundance in the various products of 
Nature ; but he has never inquired where he shall find the 
phosphates and carbonates of lime for his bones, albumen 
and fibrine for his blood, and phosphorus for his brain. 
His chemistry, mineralogy, botany, anatomy, and physio- 
logy, if thoroughly studied, would give all this knowledge ; 
but he has been intent on things remote and foreign, and 
has given but little heed to those matters which so nearly 
concern the chief functions of life. But the student should 
not be blamed. The great men of history have set him the 
example. Copernicus discovered and announced the true 
theory of the solar system a hundred years before the circu- 
lation of the blood was known. Though from the heart to 
the surface, and from the surface back to the heart, of every 
man of the race, some twenty pounds of blood had made the 
circuit once every three minutes ; yet men were looking so 
steadily away from themselves that they did not observe the 
wonderful fact. This habit of thought has developed itself 
in all the course of college study. 

" In the next place, I inquire, what kinds of knowledge 
are necessary for carrying on and improving the useful arts 
and industries of civilised life? I am well aware of the 
current notion that those muscular arts should stay in the 
fields and shops, and not invade the sanctuaries of learning. 
A finished education is supposed to consist mainly of literary 
culture. The story of the forges of the Cyclops, where the 
thunderbolts of Jove were fashioned, is supposed to adorn 
elegant scholarship more gracefully than those sturdy truths 



208 NEW WORLD HEROES. 

which are preaching to this generation in the wonders of the 
mine, in the fire of the furnace, in the clang of the iron- 
mills, and the other innumerable industries, which, more 
than all other human agencies, have made our civilisation 
what it is, and are destined to achieve wonders yet 
undreamed of. This generation is beginning to under- 
stand that education should not be for ever divorced from 
industry, that the highest results can be reached only when 
science guides the hand of labour. With what eagerness 
and alacrity is industry seizing every truth of science and 
putting it in harness ! A few years ago Bessemer of Eng- 
land, studying the nice affinities between carbon and the 
metals, discovered that a slight change of combination would 
produce a metal possessing the ductility of iron and the 
compactness of steel, and which would cost but little more 
than common iron. One rail of this metal will outlast 
fifteen of the iron rails now in use. Millions of capital 
are already invested to utilise this thought of Bessemer's, 
which must soon revolutionise the iron manufacture of the 
world. 

" Another example : The war raised the price of cotton 
and paper made of cotton rags. It was found that good 
paper could be manufactured from the fibre of soft wood ; 
but it was expensive and difficult to reduce to a pulp with- 
out chopping the fibre in pieces. A Yankee mechanic, who 
had learned in the science of vegetable anatomy that a billet 
of wood was composed of millions of hollow cylinders, many 
of them so small that only the microscope could reveal 
them, and having learnt also the penetrative and expansive 
power of steam, wedded these two truths in an experiment, 
which, if exhibited to Socrates, would have been declared a 
miracle from the gods. 

" The experiment was very simple. Putting his block of 
wood in a strong box, he forced into it a volume of super- 
heated steam, which made its way into the minutest pore 



GARFIELD ON COLLEGE EDUCATION. 209 

and cell of the wood. Then, through a trap-door suddenly 
opened, the block was tossed out. The outside pressure 
being removed, the expanding steam instantly burst every 
one of the million tubes ; every vegetable flue collapsed, and 
his block of wood lay before him a mass of fleecy fibre, more 
delicate than the hand of man could make it. 

" Machinery is the chief implement with which civilisation 
does its work, but the science of mechanics is impossible 
without mathematics. 

" But for her mineral resources, England would be only 
the hunting-park of Europe, and it is believed that her day 
of greatness will terminate when her coal-fields are exhausted. 
Our mineral wealth is a thousand times greater than hers ; 
and yet, without the knowledge of geology, mineralogy, 
metallurgy, and chemistry, our mines could be but little 
value. Without a knowledge of astronomy, commerce on 
the sea is impossible ; and now at last it is being discovered 
that the greatest of all our industries, the agricultural, in 
which three-fourths of all our population are engaged, must 
call science to its aid if it would keep up with the demands 
of civilisation. I need not enumerate the extent and variety 
of knowledge, scientific and practical, which a farmer needs 
in order to reach the full height and scope of his noble 
calling. And what has our American system of education 
done for this controlling majority of the people 1 I can 
best answer that question with a single fact. Notwithstand- 
ing that there are in the United States one hundred and 
twenty thousand common schools, and seven thousand 
academies and seminaries ; notwithstanding there are two 
hundred and seventy-five colleges, where young men may 
be graduated as bachelors and masters of the liberal arts — 
yet in all these the people of the United States have found 
so little being done, or likely to be done, to educate men 
for the work of agriculture, that they have demanded, and 
at last have secured, from their political servants in congress, 

v. 14 



£10 NEW WORLD HEROES. 

an appropriation sufficient to build and maintain in each 
state of the Union a college for the education of farmers. 
This great outlay would have been totally unnecessary, but 
for the stupid and criminal neglect of college, academic, and 
common-school boards of education to furnish that which 
the wants of the people require. The scholar and tho 
worker must join hands if both would be successful. 

"I next ask, What studies are necessary to teach our 
young men and women the history and spirit of our govern- 
ment, and their rights and duties as citizens 1 There is not 
now, and there never was on this earth, a people who have 
had so many and weighty reasons for loving their country, 
and thanking God for the blessings of civil and religious 
liberty, as our own. And yet, seven years ago, there was 
probably less strong, earnest, open love of country in the 
United States than in any other nation of Christendom. 
It is true that the gulf of anarchy and ruin into which 
treason threatened to plunge us, startled the nation as by 
an electric shock, and galvanised into life its dormant and 
dying patriotism. But how came it dormant and dying 1 I 
do not hesitate to affirm, that one of the chief causes was 
our defective system of education. Seven years ago there 
was scarcely an American college in which more than four 
weeks out of the four years' course were devoted to study- 
ing the government and history of the United States. For 
this defect of our educational system I have neither respect 
nor toleration. It is far inferior to that of Persia three 
thousand years ago. The uncultivated tribes of Greece, 
Rome, Libya, and Germany, surpassed us in this respect. 
Grecian children were taught to reverence and emulate the 
virtues of their ancestors. Our educational forces are so 
wielded as to teach our children to admire most that which 
is foreign, and fabulous, and dead. I have recently examined 
the catalogue of a leading New England college, in which 
the geography and history of Greece and Home are required 



GARFIELD ON COLLEGE EDUCATION. 211 

to be studied five terms ; but neither the history nor the 
geography of the United States is named in the college 
course, or required as a condition of admission. 

11 Our American children must know all the classic rivers 
from the Scamander to the Yellow Tiber ; must tell you the 
length of the Appian Way, and of the canal over which 
Horace and Virgil sailed on their journey to Brundusium : 
but he may be crowned with bacchalaureate honours without 
having heard, since his first moment of freshman life, one 
word concerning the one hundred and twenty-two thousand 
miles of coast and river navigation, the six thousand miles 
of canal, and the thirty-five thousand miles of railroad, 
which indicate both the prosperity and the possibilities of 
his own country. 

" It is well to know the history of those magnificent 
nations whose origin is lost in fable, and whose epitaphs 
were written a thousand years ago ; but, if we cannot know 
both, it is far better to study the history of our own nation, 
whose origin we can trace to the freest and noblest aspira- 
tions of the human heart — a nation that was formed from 
the hardiest, the purest, and most enduring elements of 
European civilisation ; a nation that, by its faith and 
courage, has dared and accomplished more for the human 
race in a single century than Europe accomplished in the 
first thousand years of the Christian era. The New Eng- 
land township was the type after which our Federal 
Government was modelled ; yet it would be rare to find a 
college student who can make a comprehensive and intelli- 
gent statement of the municipal organisation of the town- 
ship in which he was born, and tell you by what officers 
its legislative, judicial, and executive functions are ad- 
ministered. One half of the time which is now almost 
wholly wasted in district schools on English grammar, 
attempted at too early an age, would be sufficient to teach 
our children to love the Republic, and to become its loyal 



-12 NEW WORLD HEROES. 

and life-long supporters. After the bloody baptism from 
which the nation has arisen to a higher and nobler life, if 
this shameful defect in our system of education be not 
speedily remedied, we shall deserve the infinite contempt of 
future generations. I insist that it should be made an 
indispensable condition of graduation in every American 
college, that the student must understand the history of 
this Continent since its discovery by Europeans ; the 
origin and history of the United States, its constitution 
of government, the struggles through which it has passed, 
and the rights and duties of citizens who are to determine 
its destiny and share its glory. 

" Having thus gained the knowledge which is necessary 
to life, health, industry, and citizenship, the student is 
prepared to enter a wider and grander field of thought. 
If he desires that large and liberal culture which will call 
into activity all his powers, and make the most of the 
material God has given him, he must study deeply and 
earnestly the intellectual, the moral, the religious, and the 
aesthetic nature of man ; his relations to nature, to civil- 
isation, past and present ; and, above all, his relations to 
God. These should occupy nearly, if not fully, half the 
time of his college course. In connection with the 
philosophy of the mind he should study logic, the pure 
mathematics, and the general laws of thought. In con- 
nection with moral philosophy he should study political 
and social ethics — a science so little known either in colleges 
or congresses. Prominent among all the rest should be his 
study of the wonderful history of the human race, in its 
slow and toilsome march across the centuries — now buried in 
ignorance, superstition, and crime ; now rising to the 
sublimity of heroism, and catching a glimpse of a better 
destiny ; now turning remorselessly away from, and leaving 
to perish, empires and civilisations in which it had invested 
its faith and courage and boundless energy for a thousand 



GARFIELD OX COLLEGE EDUCATION. 213 

years, and plunging into the forests of Germany, Gaul, and 
Britain, to build for itself new empires, better fitted for its 
new aspirations; and, at last, crossing three thousand miles 
of unknown sea, and building in the wilderness of a new 
hemisphere its latest and proudest monuments. To know 
this as it ought to be known requires not only a knowledge 
of general history, but a thorough understanding of such 
works as Guizot's History of Civilisation, and Draper's 
Intellectual Development of Europe, and also the rich 
literature of ancient and modern nations. 

" Of course, our colleges cannot be expected to lead the 
student through all the paths of this great field of learning ; 
but they should at least point out its boundaries, and let 
him taste a few clusters from its richest vines. 

11 Finally, in rounding up the measure of his work, the 
student should crown his education with that aesthetic 
culture which will unfold to him the delights of nature and 
art, and make his mind and heart a fit temple where the 
immortal spirit of beauty may dwell for ever. 

"While acquiring this kind of knowledge the student is 
on a perpetual voyage of discovery, searching what he is, 
and what he may become; how he is related to the 
universe, and how the harmonies of the outer world 
respond to the voice within him. It is in this range of 
study that he learns most fully his own tastes and 
aptitudes, and generally determines what his work in life 
shall be. 

" The last item in the classification I have suggested — 
that special knowledge which is necessary to fit a man 
for the particular profession or calling he may adopt — I 
cannot discuss here, as it lies outside the field of general 
education, but I will make one suggestion to any of the 
young gentlemen before me who may intend to choose, 
as his life-work, some one of the learned professions. 
You will find it a fatal mistake if you makp only the same 



214 NEW WORLD HEROES. 

preparations which your predecessors made fifty or even 
ten years ago. Each generation must have a higher 
cultivation than the preceding one, in order to be equally 
successful ; and each must be educated for his own times. 
If you become a lawyer, you must remember that the 
science of law is not fixed like geometry, but is a growth 
which keeps pace with the progress of society. The 
developments of the late war will make it necessary to 
re-write many of the leading chapters of international and 
maritime law. The destruction of slavery and the en- 
franchisement of four millions of coloured men will almost 
revolutionise American jurisprudence. If Webster were 
now at the bar, in the full glory of his strength, he would 
be compelled to reconstruct the whole fabric of his legal 
learning. Similar changes are occurring both in the 
medical and military professions. Ten years hence the 
young surgeon will hardly venture to open an office till 
he has studied thoroughly the medical and surgical history 
of the late war. Since the experience at Sumter and 
Wagner, no nation will again build fortifications of costly 
masonry; for they have learned that earthworks are not 
only cheaper, but a better defence against artillery. The 
text-books on military engineering must be re-written. Our 
Spencer rifle and Prussian needle-gun have revolutionised 
both the manufacture and the manual of arms ; and no 
great battle will ever again be fought with muzzle-loading 
muskets. Napoleon, at the head of his Old Guard, could 
to-day win no Austerlitz till he had read the military 
history of the last six years. 

" It may perhaps be thought that the suggestion I have 
made concerning the professions will not apply to the work 
of the Christian minister, whose principal text-book is a 
divine and perfect revelation ; but, in my judgment, the 
remark applies to the clerical profession with even more 
force than to any other. There is no department of his 



GARFIELD ON COLLEGE EDUCATION. 215 

duties in which he does not need the fullest and the latest 
knowledge. He is pledged to the defence of revelation 
and religion ; but it will not avail him to he able tu 
answer the objections of Hume and Voltaire. The argu- 
ments of Paley were not written to answer the scepticism 
of to-day. His Natural Theology is now less valuable than 
Hugh Miller's Footprints of the Creator, or Guizot's Lectures 
on Earth and Man. The men and women of to-day know 
but little, and care less, about the thousand abstract 
questions of polemic theology which puzzled the heads and 
wearied the hearts of our Puritan fathers- and mothers. 
That minister will make, and deserves to make, a miserable 
failure, who attempts to feed hungry hearts on the dead 
dogmas of the past. More than that of any other man, it 
is his duty to march abreast with the thinkers of his time, 
and be not only a learner, but a teacher, of its science, 
its literature, and its criticism. 

" I beseech you to remember that the genius of success 
is still the genius of labour. If hard work is not another 
name for talent, it is the best possible substitute for it. 
In the long run, the chief difference in men will be found 
in the amount of work they do. Do not trust to what 
lazy men call the spur of the occasion. If you wish to 
wear spurs in the tournament of life, you must buckle 
them to your own heels before you enter the lists. Men 
look with admiring wonder upon a great intellectual effort, 
like Webster's reply to Hayne, and seem to think that it 
leaped into life by the inspiration of the moment. But 
if by some intellectual chemistry we could resolve that 
speech into its several elements of power, and trace each to 
its source, we should find that every constituent force had 
been elaborated twenty years before— it may be in some 
hour of earnest intellectual labour. Occasion may be the 
bugle-call that summons an army to battle ; but the blast of 
a bugle cannot make soldiers or win victories. 



216 NEW WORLD HEROES. 

11 And finally, young gentlemen, learn to cultivate a wise 
reliance, based not on what you hope, but on what you 
perform. It has long been the habit of this institution, if 
I may so speak, to throw young men overboard, and let 
them sink or swim. None have yet been drowned who 
were worth the saving. I hope the practice will be con- 
tinued, and that you will not rely upon outside help for 
growth or success. Give crutches to cripples, but go you 
forth with brave, true hearts, knowing that fortune dwells 
in your brain and muscle, and that labour is the only 
symbol of omnipotence." 

In point of time we have anticipated events in our 
reproduction of this speech, one of the most able spoken on 
the subject by any man in any land. 




CHAPTER VIII. 



SENATOR GARFIELD AT THE WAR, 



"There is a poor, blind Samson in the land, 

Shorn of his strength, and bound in bonds of steel, 
"Who may, in some grim revel, raise his head, 
And shake the pillars of this commonweal, 
Till the vast Temple of our liberties 
A shapeless mass of wreck and rubbish lies." 

— Longfellow. 




N the first week of January I860 James Garfield 
began to take a political position, and to do 
political work. He was sent by Hiram, the 
place in which he was then best known, to be its represen- 
tative in the Legislature of the State. At that time the 
clouds were gathering that were afterwards to burst over 
America. Garfield was at this time twenty-eight years old, 
and was by far the youngest member of the Senate. He 
took his stand among the Radical Republicans, the men 
who were determined that henceforth there should be no 
compromise with slavery, but that it should be turned out 
of the land. With him were two others— Senator J. D. 
Cox and Professor James Monroe. They were called " the 
Radical Triumvirate." 



218 NEW WORLD HEROES. 

Mr. Garfield was sometimes congratulated upon his 
success, and sometimes he received the reverse of con- 
gratulation from his friends. 

" I am sorry," said an old man, shaking his head. "You 
were in the way to become a successful worker in the 
Lord's vineyard, and now you have gone into the world." 

" But we are all in the world," replied Garfield ; " and 
we all have work to do. I believe that if I lift my voice, 
as I will do, and my hand too, if necessary, against slavery, 
I shall be doing the Lord's work as really as if I were 
preaching." 

" But it would have been a more noble thing to have 
given your life to the ministry. A Christian man has no 
business meddling with politics." 

" There I think you are entirely in the wrong. Who 
should take up politics if not Christian men 1 They are the 
men above all others who ought to rule the world." 

His friend did not agree with him; but his wife and 
mother were both glad that he should have been elected. 
Woman-like, they believed that it would be more to the 
State than to him that he was a senator. "The times need 
wise men," said the good little widow, who had prayed for 
her boy for so many years ; "if all senators were like my 
James, the world would be better." 

But she did not always thus speak to him. 

" There are responsibilities, James," she said. 

" Yes, mother, I know; but I will not shirk my duties. 
The appointment will help me many ways. It will increase 
my income, which will be a good thing, and it will give me 
a better position in every respect." 

" You will not give up Hiram 1 " 

" Not altogether. But I mean to read up law, and in 
time become a lawyer ; so I shall have to work hard." 

But his studies were destined to be speedily interrupted 
by the events of that most eventful year, 1861. 



SENATOR GARFIELD AT THE WAR. 219 

In January he declared in the Ohio Senate that he 
would oppose slavery altogether. " When the constitutional 
amendment was submitted to the Ohio legislature which 
would guarantee to the slave states the perpetuity of slavery, 
he led the uncompromising minority, and with a remark- 
able display of ability opposed, with pointed speeches and 
his vote, every measure or resolution which could be 
construed into a concession to the party in favour of human 
bondage. His speeches were eloquent, thoughtful, and 
sincere. He seemed to care nothing for popularity, and 
expected only to do his duty there, and retire with a clear 
conscience to private life, when his term of office had 
expired." 

Speaking of this time some years afterwards he said — 

" Long familiarity with the bodies and souls of men had 
paralysed the consciences of a majority of our people. The 
baleful doctrines of state sovereignty had shaken and weak- 
ened the noblest aud most beneficent powers of the national 
government, and the grasping power of slavery was seizing 
the virgin territories of the West, and dragging them into 
the den of eternal bondage. At that crisis the Republican 
party was born. It had its first inspiration from the fire of 
liberty which God has lighted in every human heart, and 
which all the powers of ignorance and tyranny can never 
wholly extinguish. The Republican party came to deliver 
and save the Republic. It entered the arena where the 
beleagured and assailed territories were struggling for free- 
dom, and drew around it the sacred circle of liberty which 
the demon of slavery has never dared to cross. It made 
them free for ever." 

It will be seen by this, that President Lincoln was a man 
after Garfield's own heart, and that his election to the 
Presidency delighted no American more than the young 
man who, in course of time, would fill the same place — and 
die the same death as Lincoln. 



220 NEW WORLD HEROES. 

The " coming events threw their shadows before." The 
Southern States seceded, knowing that secession must mean 
war. Garfield uttered the following words on the occasion 
of the discussion in the Ohio Senate of a bill to provide for 
the raising and maintaining 6000 militia. Some one had 
declared the measure would mean coercion, to which objection 
Garfield replied — 

" If by coercion it is meant that the Federal Government 
shall declare and make war against a State, then I have yet 
to see any man, Democrat or Republican, who is a coercionist 
But if by the term it is meant that the general government 
shall enforce the laws by whomsoever violated, shall protect 
the property and flag of the Union, shall punish traitors to 
the constitution, be they ten men or ten thousand, then I 
am a coercionist. Every member of the Senate, by his vote 
on the eighth resolution, is a coercionist : nine-tenths of the 
people of Ohio are coercionists. Every man is a coercionist 
or a traitor." 

Still lovers of peace hoped against hope that differences 
might be healed without recourse to war, until, only a short 
time after the election of President Lincoln, the battle of 
Bull Run settled the matter, and every man felt that it 
must be war and not peace. 

James Garfield's mind was at once made up, and he 
announced his decision to the little family circle. 

" Every man who is a patriot must respond to the call of 
President Lincoln for volunteers ! I shall be one." 

It was only natural that the faces of the mother and the 
wife should grow a little pale as they thought of the possible 
consequences of this decision on the part of the man who 
was more to them than all the world beside. But this war 
awoke as much enthusiasm in the hearts of the women as 
the men. It was a war upon which grand issues depended ; 
and all noble souls put self out of the question, and only 
asked to be allowed to do their part. It was wo 1 se for the 



SENATOR GARFIELD AT THE WAR. 221 

women than the men ; harder to give up their dearest than 
go themselves ; but they did it. There was scarcely a home 
that had a man in it which did not yield some one to the 
call of patriotism. These women would only suffer with the 
rest. 

" It is not what I have hoped and prayed for," said the 
mother of James Garfield. "Through all my years of 
poverty and work I used to dream about the future of my 
boy, but I never dreamed of his filling a soldier's grave." 

" Perhaps I shall not do that, mother. We are not all 
going to be killed, you know. But this is a cause that is 
worthy of any man's life." 

" So it is. If ever there were such a thing as a righteous 
war, this must be one." 

" Yes ; and you know we do not begin it. Lincoln would 
never have fired the first shot ; but now a man with any 
manliness in him must fight ; he would be less than a man 
if lie did not." 

11 Oh, I see, James, what your feeling is. Your life belongs 
to your country. Go, my son, and may God protect you," 
said the mother. And her daughter-in-law added, "And 
may He prosper the right ! " 

We have seen in our sketch of the life of Lincoln how 
unprepared for war was the North as compared with the 
South ; and we have also seen how one disaster followed 
another. But some of the men were heroes, and geniuses 
too, and among these we must reckon Garfield. 

A week after the Bull Run battle James Garfield was 
made Lieutenant-Colonel of a regiment at Camp Chase. He 
was to organise and command a new regiment, the Forty- 
second Ohio Infantry. A hundred students from Hiram 
College volunteered, and in August the regiment was com- 
plete. During the next months, Garfield, its commander, 
set to work to teach himself and his men the art of war. 
" Bringing his saw and jack-plane again into play, he 



222 NEW WORLD HEROES. 

fashioned companies, officers, and non-commissioned officers, 
out of maple blocks, and with those wooden-headed troops 
thoroughly mastered the infantry tactics in his quarters. 
Then he organised a school for the officers in his regiment, 
requiring thorough recitation in the tactics, and illustrating 
the manoeuvres by the blocks he had prepared for his own 
instruction This clone, he instituted regimental, company, 
squad, skirmish, and bayonet drill ; and kept his men at 
these exercises from six to eight hours a-day, until it was 
universally admitted that no better drilled or disciplined 
regiment could be found in Ohio." 

As soon as this was accomplished, very important work 
was given him to do. He was sent against the Confederate 
General, Humphrey Marshall, who had invaded Eastern 
Kentucky. 

General Buell said to him — "If you were in command 
of Eastern Kentucky, what would you do ? Think this 
question over to-night, and let me have your answer in the 
morning." 

Garfield spent most of the night in drawing plans, and 
when they were submitted to the General, he ordered 
Garfield to go and expel Marshall's army in his own way. 

The story of the battle has been often told, but in no 
language more forcible and vigorous than that of the man 
who wrote for the firm of Harper Brothers, New York — 
Mr. Edmund Kirke — who relates the conclusion thus : — 

" For five hours the contest rages. Now the Union forces 
are driven back, then charging up the hill they regain the 
lost ground, and from behind rocks and trees pour in their 
murderous volleys. Then again they are driven back, and 
again they charge up the hill, strewing the ground with 
corpses. So the bloody work goes on ; so the battle wavers, 
till the setting sun, wheeling below the hills, glances along 
the dense lines of rebel steel moving down to envelop the 
weary eleven hundred. It is an awful moment, big with the 



SEXATOR GARFIELD AT THE WAR. 5223 

fate of Kentucky. At its very crisis two figures stand out 
against the fading sky, boldly defined in the background. 

" One is in Union blue, with a little band of heroes about 
him ; he is posted on a projecting rock, which is scarred 
with bullets, and in full view of both armies. His head is 
uncovered, his hair streaming in the w T ind, his face upturned 
in the darkening daylight, and from his soul is going up a 
prayer — a prayer for Sheldon and his forces. He turns his 
eyes to the northward, and his lip tightens as he throws off 
his outer coat, and as it catches in the branch of a tree, says 
to his hundred men, ' Come on, boys ; we must give them 
"Hail, Columbia!"' 

"The other is in Confederate grey. Moving on to the 
brow of the opposite hill, and placing a glass to his eye, he, 
too, takes a long look to the northward. He starts, for he 
sees something which the other, on lower ground, does not 
distinguish. Soon he wheels his horse, and the word 
1 Retreat ! ' echoes along the valley between them. It is 
his last w T ord ; for six rifles crack, and the Confederate 
major lies on the ground. 

"The one in blue looks to the north again, and now, 
floating proudly among the trees, he sees the starry 
banner. It is Sheldon and reinforcements ! On they 
come like the rushing wind, filling the air with shouting. 
The weary eleven hundred take up the strain, and then, 
above the swift pursuit, above the lessening conflict, above 
the last boom of the wheeling cannon, goes up the wild 
huzza of victory ! The gallant Garfield has won the day, 
and rolled back the tide of disaster which has been sweeping 
on ever since Big Bethel. 

" As they come back from the short pursuit, the young 
commander grasps man after man by the hand, and says — 
' God bless you, boys, you have saved Kentucky ! ' 

" At about eight o'clock that night, at a gathering of his 
oflicers, Garfield showed them the intercepted letter of 



224 NEW WORLD HEROES. 

Marshall, and for the first time they knew that the valiant 
eleven hundred had routed an intrenched force of 5000, 
strongly supported with artillery, and that their leader was 
fully conscious of his enemy's strength when he moved to 
attack him. 

" Thus ended this remarkable battle. It was the first 
wave in the tide of victory which, with now and then an 
ebbing flow, swept on to the capture of Richmond 
President Lincoln, when he heard of it, said to a dis- 
tinguished army officer who happened to be with him, 
'Why did Garfield in two weeks do what would have 
taken you regular folks two months to accomplish 1 ' 

" 'Because he was not educated at West Point,' answered 
the West Pointer, laughing. 

" 'No,' replied Mr. Lincoln, 'that wasn't the reason. It 
was because, when he was a boy, he had to work for a 
living.' " 

An American poet wrote the following in 1880 — 

" GIVE THEM, 'HAIL, COLUMBIA.'" 

" In one hot fight that Garfield won, 
The loyal-souled commander 
Sent back a word among his men 
That stirred up all their dander. 

Ho was not quite so fast to cuss 

And swear around as some be, 
And all he said was, ' Come on, boys, 

We'll give them " Hail, Columby.' 

He led, they followed, spreading wide 

Among the rebels routed, 
From rank to rank in liberal gift, 

The self-same thing he shouted. 

Year after year, a leader still, 

In camp, and field, and forum, 
His feet beside his colours tread 

As when the bullets tore 'em. 



SENATOR GARFIELD AT THE WAR. 225 

Year after year, upon his lips, 

Through every contest ringing, 
The men who follow hear, as when 

The shells were o'er him singing. 

The words that harsh to many an ear. 

But bugle sweet to some be, 
For peace or war a charging-cry — 

' Boys, give 'em "Hail, Columby ! " ' 

—William 0. Stoddaf.d. 

The first battle in which Garfield engaged was by no 
means his last. It was for his victory at Middle Creek 
that Colonel Garfield was made a Brigade-General of Volun- 
teers. He several times rendered most important services. 
He was the first officer who refused to return a fugitive 
slave. 

" I respectfully but positively decline," he said, " to allow 
my command to search for, or deliver up, any fugitive 
slaves." 

He was told that he would probably be court-martialled, 
and he replied — " The matter may as well be tested first 
as last. Right is right, and I do not propose to mince 
matters at all. My soldiers are here for far other purposes 
than hunting and returning fugitive slaves. My people on 
the Western Reserves of Ohio did not send my boys and 
myself down here to do that kind of business, and they will 
back me up in my action." 

And so they did; for the principle that he had thus 
asserted was afterwards embodied in a general order. 

The last service rendered by Garfield to the army was 
at the battle of Chickamauga ; and for this he was raised 
to the rank of Major-General. It only took him about 
eighteen months to rise from a Lieutenant-Colonelcy to be 
a Major-General. In the famous battle of Chickamauga he 
fought under General Rosencrans; but those who knew, 
declared that much of the success was due to Garfield. 

b 15 



CHAPTER IX. 



GENERAL GARFIELD IN CONGRESS, 



u So let it be. In God's own might ; 
"We gird us for the coming fight, 
And strong in Him whose cause is ours 
In conflict with unholy powers, 
"We grasp the weapons he has given — 
The light, and truth, and love of heaven. 



-Wiiittier. 




HE Nineteenth District of Ohio had, more than 
a year before, voted James Garfield to a seat in 
Congress. He accepted it, feeling sure that the 
war would be over before the time came for him to take his 
seat. This, however, was not the case ; and he was greatly 
perplexed to know to which of the two duties, political 
or military, he ought to give his attention. He consulted 
his friends, and received their counsel ; but the words that 
decided him were those of President Lincoln — 

" I want you in Congress," he said ; " the Republican 
majority is so small, that we have some difficulty in carrying 
our war measures. There are able generals in the army, 
but few men of sufficient military experience in the House 
to regulate the legislation of the army. It is your duty, 
therefore^ to enter Congress" 



GENERAL GARFIELD IN CONGRESS. 227 

But before doing so General Garfield took a holiday, and 
went home to Hiram ; and a very sad holiday it proved 
to be. 

His mother met him with a grave face, and his wife with 
tears. 

An addition had been made some time before to the 
home company ; a little babe had come with all its joyous 
young life, and the interest that circles around it. This 
little daughter was very dear to her father. She was so 
very tiny when he saw her last, that he longed to look 
upon her face again. 

"Will she know me? Is she old enough now to take 
notice of things 1 Will she be pleased with my uniform 1 " 
Such were the questions that he asked himself. 

And the news that awaited the brave General on his 
return, was, " She is dying." 

He took the little darling in his arms, and as he did so 
all the glory faded away from his military career. He 
glanced with a bitter smile at the signs of his new rank, and 
cared nothing for the distinction that he had won. 

" How vain a thing is life ! " he said ; and in that hour 
wondered whether or not it was worth living at all. 

But his mother comforted him. 

" After all, there is duty," she said. 

"Yes, but even that we cannot be sure of. We may 
easily make mistakes. I am on my way to Washington 
now to see the President, and I suppose that will mean my 
resignation as an officer in the army." 

" Have you not fought long enough ? " asked his mother. 

" You must not leave us quite at once," said his wife • 
" it will not be long before baby's sufferings are ended." 

And indeed it was not. The time was sorrowful, but it 
was short ; and Mr. Garfield waited for the funeral. They 
had no photograph of their little darling, and one was 
taken after death. Altogether the visit to Hiram was 



228 NEW WORLD HEROES. 

very full of a trouble that stole the brightness from the 
heart of the General. 

But he was thoroughly brave ; and he went at the call of 
duty to the House, in which he retained a seat for the rest 
of his all too short life. 

There were very important questions awaiting consider- 
ation. The first measure introduced was a bill for the 
confiscation of rebel property, and Garfield's first speech in 
Congress referred to it. 

The next bill concerned bounties. Garfield alone 
opposed it ; but on the votes being taken, another, Mr. 
Grinnell of Massachusetts, voted with him, so that the 
result stood thus : Yeas, 112 ; Nays, 2. 

Mr. Chase, who was then Secretary of the Treasury, said 
to him, " I was proud of your vote the other day. You 
were right. But you have just started in public life, and I 
want you to bear in mind that it is a very risky thing to 
vote against your party. It is a good thing to do some- 
times, but not very often. Do it sparingly and carefully." 

It was good advice, and so was that given by Rosencrans 
— "When you go to Congress, be careful what you say. 
Don't talk too much, but when you talk, speak to the point. 
Be true to yourself, and you will make your mark through 
the country." 

He was true to himself, and he certainly made his 
mark. 

In regard to Garfield's conduct in the House, J. S. 
Ogilvie thus writes of an incident that created some stir 
at the time: — "In the summer of 1864 a breach occurred 
between the President and some of the most radical of the 
Republican orders in Congress over the question of the re- 
construction of the States of Arkansas and Louisiana. 
Congress passed a bill providing for the organisation of 
loyal governments within the Union lino of these States, 
but Lincoln vetoed it, and appointed military governors. 



GENERAL GARFIELD IN CONGRESS. 229 

Senator Ben Wade, of Ohio, and Representative Henry 
Winter Davis, of Maryland, united in a letter to the New 
York Tribune, sharply criticising the President for defeating 
the will of the Congress. This letter became known as the 
Wade-Davis manifesto, and created a great sensation in 
political circles. The story got about in the Nineteenth 
District that General Garfield had expressed sympathy with 
the position of Wade and Davis. His constituents con- 
demned the document, and were strongly disposed to 
set him aside and nominate another man for Congress. 
When the convention met, the feeling against Garfield was 
so pronounced that he regarded his re-nomination as hope- 
less. He was called upon to explain his course. He went 
upon the platform, and everybody expected something in 
the nature of an apology ; but he boldly defended his 
position, approved the manifesto, justified Wade, and said 
he had nothing to retract, and could not change his honest 
convictions for the sake of a seat in Congress. He had 
great respect, he said, for the opinions of his constituents, 
but greater for his own. If he could serve them as an 
independent representative, acting on his own judgment and 
conscience, he would be glad to do so, but if not, he did not 
want their nomination ; he would prefer to be an independent 
private citizen. Probably no man ever talked in that way, 
before or since, to a body of men who held his political fate 
in their hands. Leaving the platform, he strode out of the 
hall and down the stairs, supposing he had effectually cut 
his own throat. Scarcely had he disappeared when one of 
the youngest delegates sprang up and said, ' The man who 
has the courage to face a convention like that deserves a 
nomination. I move that General Garfield be nominated 
by acclamation.' The motion was carried with a shout that 
reached the ears of the Congressman, and arrested him on 
the side-walk as he was returning to the hotel. He was 
re-elected by a majority of over 12,000." 



230 NEW WORLD HEROES. 

One of his finest speeches was made in answer to Mr. 
Long, who proposed a peace at any price : — 

"Now, when tens of thousands of brave souls have gone 
up to God, under the shadow of the flag ; when thousands 
more, maimed and shattered in the contest, are sadly waiting 
the deliverance of death ; now, when three years of terrific 
warfare have raged over us ; when our armies have pushed 
the rebellion back over mountains and rivers, and crowded 
it into narrow limits, until a wall of fire girds it ; now, when 
the uplifted hand of a majestic people is about to hurl the 
bolts of its conquering power upon the rebellion ; now, in 
the quiet of this hall, hatched in the lowest depths of a 
similar dark treason, there rises a Benedict Arnold, and pro- 
poses to surrender all up, body and spirit, the nation and 
the flag, its genius and its honour, now and for ever, to the 
accursed traitors of our country ! And that proposition 
comes — God forgive and pity my beloved State — it conies 
from a citizen of the time-honoured and loyal commonwealth 
of Ohio. 

" I implore you, brethren in this house, to believe that 
not many births ever gave pangs to my mother State such 
as she suffered when that traitor was born ! I beg you not 
to believe that on the soil of that State another such growth 
has ever deformed the face of nature, and darkened the 
light of God's day." 

But we may be sure that when, at last, the fire of battle 
ceased, when the slaves were free, and the country that so 
long had mourned lifted up its head to rejoice, no one was 
more grateful than was Garfield, the Disciple. 

And when, in the midst of the peace-rejoicings, the 
President was smitten down, no one's heart ached with a 
more tender sorrow than the heart of James Garfield. He 
had not only known, but he had understood and loved 
Abraham Lincoln, and he felt that he had lost a friend. 
The self-control which he manifested, however, was very 



GENERAL GARFIELD IN CONGRESS. 231 

remarkable, and the way in which his voice stilled the mad 
crowds in the streets of New York will never be forgotten. 
They cried for vengeance, but he saw that behind the deed 
was mercy. He knew that the righteous cannot die too 
soon, that the swift stroke of the assassin only hurries on 
the soul that is ready to go to the Father's house. He 
therefore took comfort when others almost lost hope. His 
words on the first anniversary of Lincoln's death were 
descriptive of his real feelings : — 

"In all future time, on the recurrence of this day, I 
doubt not that the citizens of this Republic will meet in 
solemn assembly to reflect on the life and character of 
Abraham Lincoln, and the awful tragic event of the 14th 
of April 1865 — an event unparalleled in the history of 
nations, certainly in our own. It is eminently proper that 
this House should this day place upon its record a memorial 
of this event. The last five years have been marked by 
wonderful developments of individual character. Thousands 
of your people, before unknown to fame, have taken their 
places in history, crowned with immortal honours. In 
thousands of humble homes are dwelling heroes and patriots 
whose names shall never die. But greatest amongst these 
developments were the character and fame of Abraham 
Lincoln. Such a character will be treasured for ever as 
the sacred possession of the American people and of 
mankind. In the great drama of the rebellion there were 
two acts. The first was the war, with its battles and 
sieges, victories and defeats, its sufferings and its tears. 
That act was closing one year ago to-night; and just as 
the curtain was lifting on the second and final act — the 
restoration of peace and liberty — just as the curtain was 
rising upon new characters and new events, the evil spirit 
of the rebellion, in the fury of despair, nerved and directed 
the assassin to strike down the chief character in both. It 
was no one man who killed Abraham Lincoln ; it was the 



232 NEW WORLD HEROES. 

embodied spirit of treason and slavery, inspired with fear- 
ful despairing hate, that struck him down in the moment 
of the nation's supiemest joy. 

" Ah ! sir, ther3 are times in the history of men and 
nations, when they stand so near the veil that separates 
mortals from immortals, time from eternity, and men from 
their God, that they can almost hear the beatings, and feel 
the pulsations of the heart of the Infinite. Through such a 
time has this nation passed. When two hundred and fifty 
thousand brave spirits passed from the field of honour, 
through that thin veil, to the presence of God ; and when 
at last its parting folds admitted the martyr President to 
the company of the dead heroes of the Republic, the nation 
stood so near the veil, that the whispers of God were heard 
by the children of men. Awe-stricken by His voice, the 
American people knelt in tearful reverence, and made a 
solemn covenant with Him, and with each other, that their 
nation should be saved from its enemies; that all its glories 
should be restored, and on the ruins of slavery and treason 
the temple of freedom and justice should be built, and 
should survive for ever. It remains for us, consecrated by 
that great event, and under a covenant with God, to keep 
that faith, to go forward in the great work until it shall be 
completed. Following the lead of that great man, and 
obeying the high behests of God, let us remember that — 

" ' He hath sounded forth a trumpet that shall never call retreat ; 
He is sifting out the hearts of men before his judgment-seat ; 
Be swift, my soul, to answer him ; be jubilant, my feet ; 
For God is marching on.' " 

The speech seems almost prophetic, as we remember how 
appropriate were the words to the speaker himself, when, 
afterwards, he too had fallen. 

One of the matters to which, especially, Garfield gave his 
attention in Congress were those which related to the 



GENERAL GARFIELD IN CONGRESS. 233 

finance of his country. He was a great financier, and his 
opinions were opposed to that of many of his supporters. 
He believed in " honest money," and not in " greenbacks," 
and did not hesitate to say so. 

One friend cautioned him against this. " The State is 
swept into the greenback current, and there is no stem- 
ming the torrent ; so say nothing on the subject, for the 
feeling is too strong to be resisted." 

But Garfield replied, " Much as I value your opinions, I 
here denounce this theory, that has worked its way into this 
State, as dishonest, unwise, and unpatriotic ; and if I were 
offered a nomination and election for my natural life, from 
this district, on this platform, I should spurn it. If you 
should ever raise the question of re-nominating me, let 
it be understood you can have my services only on the 
ground of the honest payment of this debt, and these bonds 
in coin, according to the letter and spirit of the contract." 

The manly spirit thus manifested did not cost him his 
seat, but, on the contrary, appealed so strongly to his 
Ohio friends, that when the convention met he was 
re-nominated by acclamation. 




CHAPTER X. 



THE NEW HOME AT MENTOR. 




" And still the Pilgrim State remains 
What she hath heen ; 
Her inland hills, her seaward plains, 
Still nurture men." 

— "VVhittier. 

ENERAL GARFIELD was many years before ho 
had a home of his own. Then, while still at 
Hiram, he purchased a small frame-cottage facing 
the college green, which he enlarged by adding to it a wing. 
The ceiling was low, and the rooms small ; but the clever 
housewife soon made them look pretty and homelike ; and 
this was the only home which the family had for many years. 
When they went to Washington, they lived in apartments 
for some time ; and it was not until the General had been 
three times elected that he decided to buy a house there ; 
but then he felt that for the sake of the children it would 
be well to have a settled home amid wholesome influences. 
He had in all seven children. Little Mary, whose death 
has been already mentioned — the first to come and the first 
to die — Henry, James, Molly, Irwin, Abram, and Edward, 
the youngest, who also died early. Ogilvie thus described 



THE NEW HOME AT MENTOR. 235 

the survivors as they were at the time of their father's 
death : — " Harry and James are preparing for college at St, 
Paul's School, in Concord, New Hampshire. Harry is the 
musician of the family, and plays the piano well. James, 
who more resembles his father, is the mathematician. 
Molly, a handsome girl of thirteen, is ruddy, sweet- 
tempered, vivacious, and blessed with perfect health. The 
younger boys are still in the period of boisterous animal 
life. All the children have quick brains, and are strongly 
individualised. All learned to read young except Abe, 
who, knowing that his father had years ago said, in a 
lecture on education, that no child of his should be forced 
to read until he was seven years old, took refuge behind the 
parental theory, and declined to learn his letters until he 
had reached that age." 

To house these children, and make a home for them, 
General Garfield bought a lot on the corner of Thirteenth 
Street, facing Franklin Square, and with money lent to him 
by an old army friend, built a plain, square, brick house, 
substantial enough for a home, and large enough to hold his 
family and one or two guests besides. The manner of life 
in the Garfield house was simple and quiet. It was cheerful, 
and it was pious. There was a hospitable table bountifully 
supplied ; and any friend was welcome. The General 
was himself an abstainer, and no alcoholic drinks were used 
in his home. Nothing was artificial ; there was no effort 
visible either in the furniture of the house or the dress 
of its inmates to be fashionable. But there was a hand- 
some collection of books in the library, which the master 
never grew weary of studying. He was also fond of a game 
at chess or whist ; and he relieved the tedium of work by 
reading Tooke's History of Prices, the Biylow Papers, and 
Pickwick " I believe Dickens will kill me yet," he used 
to say after a good laugh at some of the humourist's 
fancies. Scott and Shakespeare were also favourites ; and 



236 NEW WORLD HEROES. 

he delighted in that leader of magazines, The Atlantic 
Monthly. 

But after a time, and when he had paid off the mortgage 
on his house, and had a little money in hand, he was able 
to gratify a desire he had long felt to go back a little to the 
old pursuits of his youth, and have a farm. At this time 
he had proved himself a very remarkable and successful 
lawyer, and had made his way into the good opinions of 
many men \ but he had worked hard, and needed rest and 
quiet. 

11 Where shall the new home be ? " was a question often 
debated in the Washington home. 

" Let it be in some pretty locality," was one suggestion. 

"And among green fields," was another. 

"And near the hills," was a third. 

"Are we to be always there ?" asked one of the boys. 

" Oh, no, we will keep on the Washington home for the 
winter, and spend the summer in the real country, where the 
flowers grow and the birds sing, and the waters are blue. 
The boys can learn the arts of haymaking and harvesting, 
and we can grow our own corn, make our own butter, and 
eat our own mutton." 

Everybody agreed that it would be delightful, and many 
excursions were taken while they were occupied in the 
search for it. At last it was found in the vicinity of the 
Lake Shore railroad, on a fine hill near Lake Erie. A farm 
of one hundred and sixty acres was bought. It was suffi- 
ciently secluded, for it was a mile from any railway, and 
half-a-mile from the post office. The land was beautifully 
fertile, and the summer climate, tempered by the lake 
breezes, delightful. The buildings were not much to look 
at ; they consisted of a tumble-down barn, and an ancient 
farm-house only a storey and a half high. 

But improvements were rapidly made, and as soon as the 
bouse was covered the inmates moved into it, not waiting 



THE NEW HOME AT MENTOR. 237 

for it to be all finished. They did not in the least object to 
the shavings and the new paint, and the music of the 
hammers. A friend who called said he " found the 
General's writing table in the front hall surrounded by- 
boxes, furniture, papers, letters, books, children, and callers. 
Yet how happy they all seemed ! " 

Before they went into their new home, the General had 
felt the need of rest and change. His studies as a lawyer, 
and especially his great thought and labour in regard to 
finance had told very strongly upon his health, and in the 
summer of 1867 he took a holiday. 

General and Mrs. Garfield actually came to England 
together, and moved about in our land with few to recognise 
or offer them hospitality. How different would it have 
been later on ! They were absent from New York seven- 
teen weeks in all. They landed in Liverpool, and after 
looking about the city, they went on to Chester. The 
General was particularly interested in this city, for the 
home of his ancestors had been near it ; and we can imagine 
with what feelings of delight he would walk by the side of 
the river, or kneel with the worshippers in the grand old 
cathedral. 

From Chester they went to London, the city which all 
his life James Garfield had wished to see — the wonderful 
city so rich and so poor, so generous to guests, so cold to 
strangers, so wicked and yet so good. He went to the 
House of Commons and there listened to one of the fine 
debates which resulted in the giving of the ballot to seven 
hundred thousand Englishmen. It may be safely presumed 
that nothing, during his holiday, gave the General greater 
pleasure. 

He went to Westminster Abbey, and declared that 
he liked the Poets' Corner better than the chapel of 
Henry VII. In the British museum he was especially de- 
lighted with the old autographs, particularly that of Milton. 



238 NEW WORLD HEROES. 

He went to Hampton Court, walking through Bushy Park, 
admiring the fine horse-chestnuts, and elms, and oaks that 
grow there, and being greatly interested in the noble old 
palace, so long a residence of our kings and queens. The 
paintings pleased him, especially those of Benjamin West, 
of Philadelphia. He noted the celebrated Black Homberg 
vine, which was at the date of his visit a hundred and 
one years old, and bore fifteen hundred clusters. On 
another occasion he visited the Tower of London. In the 
diary which he kept at the time, and which was produced 
in The Century Magazine for January 1884, he wrote : — ■ 
" This Tower seemed a monster, tearing down men and 
families, and crunching them in its merciless jaws, as the 
dinotherium crushed and devoured the fern-trees dateless 
ages ago. Both are passed away. The fern-trees burn in 
the grates, and glow in the chandeliers of thousands of 
happy homes, and the broken hearts and crushed hopes of a 
thousand martyrs, who sleep under the shadows of this 
terrible Tower, have given civil and religious liberty ; and 
their memories and brave words live and glow in the hearts 
of many millions of Englishmen, and will bless coming 
generations. May the Tower stand there many centuries, 
as a mark to show how high the red deluge rose, and how 
happy is this England of Victoria compared with that of 
her ancestors ! " 

Billingsgate Market, Madam Tussaud's exhibition of wax 
figures, and South Kensington Museum, were all visited in 
turn. One Sunday he went to Newington to hear Spurgeon, 
" to try to discover what manner of man he was, and 
what was the secret of his power." He was moved by the 
singing ; five thousand voices, without any instrument to 
lead them, joined in singing the hymn, " There is a land 
of pure delight." 

" The whole building was filled and overflowed with the 
strong volume of song. The music made itself felt as a 



THE NEW HOME AT MENTOR. 239 

living, throbbing presence that entered your nerve, brain, 
heart, and filled and swept you away in its resistless 
current." He was altogether pleased with Spurgeon, with 
his manner and pronunciation, and with the clear, logical 
and perfectly comprehensible arrangement of his sermons. 
" His manner is exceedingly simple and unaffected. He 
does not appear to be aware that he is doing a great thing, 
and I could see no indication that success had turned his 
head. . . . God bless Spurgeon ! He is helping to work 
out the problem of religious and civil freedom for England 
in a way that he knows not of ! " 

General Garfield stayed a week in London, and then he 
visited Scotland, and did what all Americans who visit our 
country like to do, and what every British adult ought to 
endeavour to do — he made the tour of the Scottish Lakes. 

Yery good times he and Mrs. Garfield must have had 
together — for he loved Scott and knew his writings well, 
and could verify the places mentioned by him, and compare 
them with the poet's descriptions of them. Those tourists 
who met the two strangers on coaches or in hotels, and 
knew their names, must have been very glad afterwards to 
call up all reminiscences of the holiday. 

From Scotland they crossed the North Sea, and landed at 
Rotterdam. Then they went on to Brussels, and up the 
Rhine to Switzerland. After a glorious stay among the 
sublime scenery of the lakes, they crossed the Alps, and 
went into Italy. They passed some happy days at Milan 
and Venice, but made their longest stay in Rome, where, 
among its ruins and monuments, Garfield was carried back 
to those classic times with which his studies at college had 
made him familiar. Here he revelled in delight, finding 
the days pass all too quickly. They went to Paris, and 
had a joyous time there, and then returned to London, as if 
loth to leave it altogether. But there was yet one other 
country which he wished to see,, and towards the end of his 



240 NEW WORLD HEROES. 

holiday he went over to Ireland, where he remained until 

it was time to set sail for home. 

His health was thus thoroughly re-established, and ho 

felt strong for work, and courageous for all that was right. 

His mind had been enlarged, and his knowledge of men and 

things considerably widened by his travels. 

It was then that he made his famous speeches and wrote 

his famous documents on Banking and Currency, and Public 

Expenditure and similar subjects. 

It was while he was spending a happy time at Mentor 

with his family that he was chosen to be a delegate to the 

Republican Convention of 1880, which was afterwards held 

at Chicago. He was very busy at the time ploughing the 

land, repairing the fences, and making the house more 
pleasant. 

The little home-circle received the news with dismay. 
They knew what that would possibly lead to ; and they did 
not want to spare the father to the State. 

"We see so little, far too little of you now," they said, 

" we shall have you less then. It is too bad, now that we 
are going to have this happy life in the country, for you to 
be burdened with fresh cares." 

But his friends urged his acceptance of the responsibility. 
It seemed that he could do what no other man could just 
then. He was well known in the country, and he had 
more than a little influence. He thought that Mr. Sherman, 
the successful Secretary of the Treasury, ought to be the 
next President, and he threw all his power into the scale 
for his friend. The Hon. James Blaine and General Grant 
were the leading aspirants ; but at the meeting at Chicago 
Garfield nominated Mr. Sherman, and made the following 
speech : — 

" Mr. President — I have witnessed the extraordinary 
scenes of this Convention with deep solicitude. No emotion 
touches my heart more quickly than sentiment in honour of 



THE NEW HOME AT MENTOR. 241 

a great and noble character ; but as I sat on those seats and 
witnessed these demonstrations it seemed to me that you 
were a human ocean in a tempest. I have seen the sea 
lashed into fury and tossed into spray, and its grandeur 
moves the soul of the dullest man. But I remember that 
it is not the billows, but the calm level of the sea, from 
which all heights and depths are measured ! When the 
storm has passed, and the hour of calm settles on the ocean, 
when the sunlight bathes its smooth surface, then the 
astronomer and surveyor take the level from which they 
measure all terrestrial heights and depths. 

" Gentlemen of the Convention, your present temper may 
not mark the healthful pulse of our people. When our 
enthusiasm has passed, when the emotions of this hour have 
subsided, we shall feel that calm level of public opinion 
below the storm from which the thoughts of a mighty people 
must be measured, and by which their final action will be 
determined. 

" Not here, in this brilliant circle, where fifteen thousand 
men and women are assembled, is the destiny of the 
Republican party to be decreed. Not here, where I see the 
enthusiastic faces of seven hundred and fifty delegates wait- 
ing to cast their votes into the urn, and determine the 
choice of the Republic, but by four million Republican 
firesides there are thoughtful voters, with wives and children 
about them, with the calm thoughts inspired by love of 
home and country, with the history of the past, the hopes 
of the future, and the knowledge of the great men who have 
adorned and blessed our nation in days gone by. There 
God prepares the verdict that shall determine the wisdom 
of our work to-night. Not in Chicago in the heats of June, 
but in the sober quiet that comes to them between now and 
November, in the silence of deliberate judgment, will this 
great question be settled." 

lie little thought that before the end of the Convention 
b 16 



242 NEW WORLD HEROES. 

it would be his own name which should be spoken not only 
with applause but with deep-seated determination and 
approval. 

It was not all strife and not all of political whirlwind at 
the Convention. A pleasant incident is related in regard to 
the second day. There had been a temporary adjournment 
for dinner, and as the delegates were returning to the hall 
where the Convention was held, a young man, a member of 
the Chicago Young Men's Christian Association, respectfully 
presented each delegate as he entered with a slip of paper, 
on which was printed a verse from the Bible. General 
Garfield took his, read it, and pinned it on the inside of his 
straw hat. The words on it were these : — " This is the 
stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is 
become the head of the corner. Neither is there salvation 
in any other." 




£1 V A 



^P 



CHAPTER XI, 



ELECTED PRESIDENT. 



Through wish, resolve, and act, our will 

Is moved by unseen forces still ; 

And no man measures in advance 

His strength with untried circumstance." 

— Wiiittier. 



^fpE^ERAL GARFIELD had no expectations in 
p^fl regard to the Presidency. He supposed that 
£zM.:\ Grant would be re-elected, or Blaine decided 
upon, or, as he himself wished, that Sherman should be the 
chosen of the people. But these things were not to be. 
Before the Convention came to an end it was his own 
name that was shouted far and near, his own name that 
went flashing along the electric wires, and that was found 
in all the newspapers of the land ; and on the 8th of June 
1880 he received from the chairman of the Convention 
a formal and official invitation. 

It was very startling news for him to take home ; and it 
was not received with special manifestations of joy. It 
is said that the youngest son was bare-footed, and sitting 
in a cherry tree on the Mentor farm,, when the news was 
brought to him. 



244 FEW WORLD HEROES. 

" President 1 " he said. "Tell dad not to accept it. 
There are no such cherry trees, and no such cherries as 
these, to be found at the White House." 

" What do you think of it, mother?" asked the President, 
as he stooped to kiss the white-haired woman whose early 
lessons had brought forth such good fruit. But she could 
only reply, " It is the Lord's doings, and is marvellous in 
our eyes." 

As for the wife, she felt almost as if a calamity had 
befallen her. " We have been so happy in our simple life," 
she said, " I do not want to change it for the distinctions 
and responsibilities of life at the White House." 

" But you would grace that or any other position," said a 
loving voice, and Mrs. Garfield felt that she would not stand 
in her husband's way to honour for any love of her own ease. 

His letter of acceptance was dated — 

"Mentor, Ohio, 10th July 1880. 

Dear Sir — On the evening of the 8th of June last I had 
the honour to receive from you, in the presence of the com- 
mittee of which you were chairman, the official announce- 
ment that the Republican Convention at Chicago had that 
day nominated me as their candidate for President of the 
United States. I accept the nomination with gratitude for 
the confidence it implies, and with a deep sense of the 
responsibility it imposes. I cordially endorse the principles 
set forth in the platform adopted by the Convention. On 
nearly all the subjects of which it treats, my opinions are on 
record among the published proceedings of Congress. I 
venture, however, to make special mention of some of the 
principal topics which are likely to become subjects of 
discussion." 

He goes on to speak of these, and says among other 
things : — 

" Next in importance to freedom and justice is popular 



ELECTED PRESIDE NT. 245 

education, without which neither justice nor freedom can be 
permanently maintained. Whatever help the nation can 
justly afford should be generously given to aid the States in 
supporting common schools ; but it would be unjust to our 
people, and dangerous to our institutions, to apply any por- 
tion of the revenues of the nation, or of the States, to the 
support of Sectarian schools." 

The letter closed thus : — 

" The doctrines announced by the Chicago Convention are 
not the temporary devices of a party to attract votes and 
carry an election ; they are deliberate convictions, resulting 
from the careful study of our institutions, the events of our 
history, and the best impulses of our people. In my 
judgment these principles should control the legislation and 
administration of the Government. In any event, they will 
guide my conduct until experience points out a better way. 

"If elected, it will be my purpose to enforce strict 
obedience to the constitution and the laws, and to promote, 
as best I may, the interests and honour of the whole country, 
relying for support upon the wisdom of Congress, the 
intelligence and patriotism of the people, and the favour of 
God." 

Russell H. Conwell says : — " His speeches during the 
trying interval between his nomination and election were 
models of modesty and statesmanship. He possessed a 
character which would bear study. He was a man of 
whom the more was known the greater would be the 
respect for his ability and intentions. The Republican 
cause thrived through the great impulse which General 
Garfield's domestic and public life, and self-sacrificing 
spirit, gave to canvass. 

" It was a bitter thing, however, to his affectionate wife 
and faithful relatives, to see again and again revived the 
most slanderous statements concerning his life. Stories 
that were conceived in the purest malice, and enlarged upon 



246 KEW WORLD HEROES. 

by the campaign orators and writers, would not die with 
repeated killing. Tt is probable, however, that his repeated 
candidacy, like every other good cause, prospered by 
persecution. The more hateful the slanders, the more 
active were his friends. The more untruthful the state- 
ments of the press, the more numerous his adherents. It 
was a period when General Garfield was compelled to stand 
silently and immovably before all detractors, enemies, and 
scandal-mongers, and receive without retaliation all the 
poisonous darts they incessantly hurled at him. No event 
of his life was so much used and abused as his acquaint- 
ance with Honourable Oakes Ames, during the great 
Credit Mobilier excitement. Now that both men are seen 
through the funereal halo which their death have placed 
about their memories, we only look and wonder that to 
either of those honourable men such a martyrdom should 
come, among an intelligent, civilised, and Christian people. 
The lesson it teaches is very important, but seldom 
made practical; that is, that we should so regard and so 
treat the living men that when they are gone we shall 
not regret it. It is silly, unmanly, unchristian, to vilify 
a man while he lives, and then exalt his name as a saint 
or an angel when he is dead — both positions being false 
and despicable." 

The Credit Mobilier scandal referred to certainly 
threatened at one time to ruin General Garfield altogether. 
He met it, however, with his own straightforward candour, 
and his unstained reputation was in itself a denial of the 
allegation made against him. It was alleged that he and 
others had sold themselves for sundry amounts of stock of 
the Credit Mobilier Company, and bonds of the Pacific 
Kail way Company. But so clearly did he show that his 
dealings in regard to the matter had been perfectly innocent 
and free from taint, that a reaction in his favour soon set 
in. lie had come out of his time of unpopularity, and 



ELECTED PRESIDENT. 217 

was now honoured and trusted by all but his political 
enemies. 

Of course General Garfield had to make what they call in 
America stump speeches. We give some extracts from one : — 

"Fellow-citizens — What is the central thought in American 
life 1 What is the germ out of which all our institutions 
were born and have been developed 1 Let me give it to 
you in a word. When the Mayflower was about to land 
her precious freight upon the shores of Plymouth, the 
Pilgrim Fathers gathered in the cabin of that little ship on 
a stormy November day, and after praying to Almighty 
God for the success of their great enterprise, drew up and 
signed what is known in history, and what will be known 
to the last syllable of recorded time, as "The Pilgrim 
Covenant." In that covenant is one sentence which I ask 
you to take home with you to-night. It is this: — 'We 
agree, before God and each other, that the freely expressed 
will of the majority shall be the law of all, which we will 
all obey.' (Applause.) Ah, fellow-citizens, it does honour 
to the heads and to the hearts of a great New England 
audience here, on this Western Reserve, to applaud the 
grand and simple sentiment of the Pilgrim Fathers. They 
said, ' No standing army shall be needed to make us obey. 
We will erect here in America a substitute for monarchy, 
a substitute for despotism, and that substitute shall be the 
will of the majority as the law of all.' And that germ, 
planted on the rocky shores of New England, has sprung 
up, and all the trees of our liberty have grown from it, into 
the beauty and glory of this year of our life. (Applause.) 

« Is there any death here in our camp 1 Yes ! Yes ! 
Three hundred and fifty thousand soldiers, the noblest band 
that ever trod the earth, died to make this camp a camp of 
glory and of liberty for ever. (Tremendous applause.) 

" But there are no dead issues here. There are no dead 



248 NEW WORLD HEROES. 

issues here. Hang out our banner from under the blue sky 
this night, until it shall sweep the green turf under your 
feet ! It hangs over our camp ! Bead away up under the 
stars the inscription we have written on it, lo ! these twenty- 
five years. 

" Twenty-five years ago the Republican party was married 
to liberty, and this is our silver wedding, fellow-citizens. 
(Great applause.) A worthily married pair love each other 
better on the day of their silver wedding than on the day 
of their first espousals ; and we are truer to liberty to-day, 
and dearer to God, than we were when we spoke our first 
word of liberty. Read away up under the sky across our 
starry banner that first word we uttered twenty-five years 
ago! What was it 1 ? 'Slavery shall never extend over 
another foot of the territories of the great West ! ' (Applause. ) 
Is that dead or alive 1 Alive, thank God, for evermore ! 
(Applause.) And truer to-night than it was the hour it 
was written ! (Applause.) Then it was a hope, a promise, 
a purpose. To-night it is equal with the stars — immortal 
history and immortal truth ! (Applause.) ... 

"Come down the glorious steps of our banner. Every 
great record we have made we have vindicated with our 
blood and with our truth. It sweeps the ground, and it 
touches the stars. Come then, young man, and put it in 
your life, where all is living, and where nothing is dead but 
the nerves that defended it ! (Applause.) I think these 
young men will do that. (Of course they will !) 

"Gentlemen, we are closing this memorable campaign. 
We have got our enemies on the run everywhere. 
(Laughter.) And all you need to do in this noble old 
city, this capital of the Western reserve, is to follow 
them up and finish it by snowing the rebellion under 
once more. We stand on an isthmus. This year and 
next is the narrow isthmus between us and perpetual 
victory. If you can win now and win in 1880, then the 



ELECTED PRESIDENT. 219 

very stars in their courses will fight for us. (Applause.) 
The census will do the work, and will give us thirty more 
freemen of the North in our Congress that will make up for 
the rebellion of the South. (Great applause.) We are 
posted here, as the Greeks were posted at Therm opylre, to 
meet this one great barbarian Terxes of the isthmus. 
Stand in your places, men of Ohio ! Fight this battle, win 
this victory, and then one more puts you in safety for ever ! " 

It was wonderful how soon all sorts of names were given 
to him. In the press he was called " Hero," " Statesman," 
"Scholar," "Coward," "Bribe-taker," "Charlatan," "Lob- 
byist," and " Renegade Preacher." But the names neither 
hurt nor helped him. The opposition did not dishearten him, 
and it certainly made his friends all the more staunch and true. 

One incident that occurred immediately before the 
election was taken caused a riot that might have led to 
serious consequences. Some one forged a letter, which 
purported to have been written by General Garfield to Mr. 
H. L. Morey on Chinese Labour. It was a cruel elec- 
tioneering "dodge," and made Garfield to express senti- 
ments which were not his. In denying its authorship, he 
said — "The lithographic copy shows a clumsy attempt to 
imitate my penmanship and signature. Anyone who is 
familiar with my handwriting will instantly see that the 
letter is spurious." 

The election took place on Tuesday, 2nd November. 
The State of New York voted for the Republican party by 
a majority of 20,000. The popular majority in favour of 
General Garfield was 8,235 votes. 

The Republican victory gave satisfaction in Great Britain 
as well as throughout the United States ; and the people 
felt that a time of peace and prosperity had arrived. 

The change that had come upon the General and his 
family was thus described : — " From an early hour on the 
morning after his election, until hi3 death at Elberon, his 



250 NEW WORLD HEROES, 

time was taken up, his footsteps dogged, or his sick-bed 
disturbed with the ceaselessly importuning office-seekers. 
Such a state of affairs is a great disgrace to our nation, and 
one which General Garfield was determined to remedy if 
possible. 

" The behaviour of many aspirants for official position 
was but little better than that of the assassin himself. 
They invaded his private house in swarms. They stopped 
his carriage in the street • they called him out of bed ; they 
bored him in the railroad carriages and stations; they wrote 
to his wife and his sons ; they courted fawningly all his old 
neighbours and relatives ; they covered him with flattery 
more contemptible than slander ; they filled his office with 
piles of letters it was impossible to read or answer ; they 
sent him presents to tempt him ; they wrote most silly 
laudations of his life, and published them to his great dis- 
gust ; and teasing, coaxing, threatening, they made anxious 
and unhappy nearly every hour of his life after his election. 
More than six hundred applications were made for one 
office, before he had the right to make the appointment. 
lie could give it to but one, and thus innocently made 
more than six hundred enemies. 

"As Mrs. Garfield had predicted, their home life was 
gone. 2STo more domestic quiet; no more social family 
gatherings; no more rest. Naught came to them but 
pressing cares and almost disheartening responsibilities. 
Even the little boys felt the wear of ceaseless visiting, and 
sought an asylum in the barn or at a neighbour's house. 
Nothing they possessed was longer their own, They and 
theirs were treated as public property, and the ceaseless 
vigils of the press told to the whole world their slightest 
movements, even to an extended account of the youngest 
boy's truancy at school, and of the daughter's different 
dresses." 

All this was exceedingly disagreeable ; but Garfield knew 



ELECTED PRESIDENT. 251 

that he must be prepared to sacrifice much, and he made 
up his mind to do it willingly. He gave a great deal of 
thought in order to endeavour to remedy the evil of partisan 
appointments in the civil service, and laboured to bring 
about altogether a better state of things than existed pre- 
viously. 

As the time of the inauguration drew near, the nation 
resolved to make it one of the most magnificent displays 
ever witnessed. " With vast throngs of enthusiastic visitors ; 
with long lines of military organisations in their gay 
trappings ; with miles of bunting and clouds of flags and 
streamers ; with trumpets, drums, bands, and singing ; with 
feasts, collations, speeches, and a grand ball ; with huzzahs, 
congratulations, and all kinds of demonstrations of joy, the 
people hailed him as their chief magistrate." 

The Inaugural Address was a splendid one, and the 
whole ceremony imposing. But what added to the interest 
of the scene more than all else was the presence of his 
mother, now eighty years old, and his faithful and beloved 
wife. At the close of the address, which concluded most 
solemnly, the oath was administered, and Mr. Garfield bent 
low and kissed the Bible. He was then declared President 
of the United States — and the vast throng cheered as only 
people full of joy can do. Great men pressed forward to 
greet and congratulate their new chief ; but before he spoke 
to any of them he turned to the two women, who with 
moved faces had listened to his address, and respectfully 
and significantly kissed, first his mother, and then his 



With sudden praise, a mighty voico 

Sweeps all the continent ; 
Helpless, before the people's choice, 

The statesmen's wills have bent ; 
It honours first, before all other, 
A patient little 'white-haired mother.' 



252 NEW WORLD HEROES. 

The clay has come — the hour draws near l 

Lcck on, the listening land : 
Who brings this ruler, peer with peer ? 

Who stays him, hand in hand ? 
Honoured by him above all other, 
He brings his little ' white-haired mother/ 

The glittering embassies of kings 

Are standing in their state ; 
Their tributes rank as lesser things, 

They and their kingdoms wait ; 
While reverently, before all other, 
The ruler greets his ' white-haired mother.'* 

Ah ! States may grow, and men may gain, 

And power and riches swift increase ; 
The brunt of every country's strain, 

Its fights for purity and peace, 
Comes through its husbands, daughters, brothers, 
At last on patient ' white-haired mothers.' 

Instead of his Inaugural Address we give the last speech 
he ever made in Hiram College. The occasion was that of 
a funeral, and the address was given on 4th February : — 

" To-day is a sort of burial-day in many ways. I have 
often been in Hiram and often left it ; but, with the excep- 
tion of when I went to the war, I have never felt that I was 
leaving it in quite so definite a way as I do to-day. It was 
so long a workshop, so long a home, that all absences have 
been temporary, and involved 'always a return. I cannot 
speak of all the ties that bind me to this place. There are 
other things buried beneath this snow besides dead people. 
The trees, the rocks, the fences, and the grass, are all 
reminders of things connected with my Hiram life. 

" It is a revival of youth to me to be in this place to see 
its bright young life. I see before me just such a set 
of students as I saw here twenty-four, twenty-six — yes, 
twenty-eight years ago — just as young, just as bright, just as 
hopeful of the future. It is pleasing to know that Hiram 



ELECTED PRESIDENT. 253 

life is ever the same. A few days ago I saw a girl in the 
full bloom of early womanhood, who is the daughter of a 
woman who was my pupil here twenty-four years ago. She 
was the picture of her mother, whom I have never seen 
since, but I am told she has become a grey-haired' matron. 
As the daughter stood before me, the likeness of what the 
mother was then, what thoughts and feelings came over me 
of the years that are gone ! There is an idea of immortality 
in this — life is reproduced in things that follow. A fountain 
of perpetual youth is this old chapel ; there are no wrinkles 
in its walls. It is a very comforting thought that though 
the ancients sought the fountain of perpetual youth, and 
found it not, it can be found in the associations of a place 
like this. 

" It is pitiful that we often do not appreciate good things 
until they are gone. Emerson has said, ' To-day is a king 
in disguise.' He passes among us ; and, if we heed not, he 
leaves us, and we are none the wiser. Get acquainted with 
what there is in to-day ; take what it contains and appro- 
priate it to yourself. The strong friendships and deep 
impressions that you are forming now will live in time to 
come. The other day a man came to me whom I had 
known here twenty-five years ago, but he was changed ; 
he was fat and whiskered and half bald ; and when I took 
him by the hand, and called him by name, with ' W. D.' 
for his initials, he cried like a man to be remembered. 
I believe he is richer, fuller, more of a man, for what he 
trained here in Hiram. If I thought the time would ever 
come when I should live the Hiram life out of me, I 
should hope to die just before it came. 

"Never despise the days of Hiram life and childhood. 
The associations that you are now forming, your lessons, 
your thoughts, and your deeds from day to clay, are what 
go to make up your life here ; and this is the foundation 
of your after-life. Be wise now ; and when you live over 



25 1 NEW WORLD HEROES. 

again the life you lived here, may it be such as ) ou could 
wish ! 

"I cannot see what lies beyond. I may be going on an 
Arctic voyage, but, be that as it may, I know that years 
ago I builded upon this promontory a cairn, from which, 
wherever my wanderings may lead me, I can draw some 
sustenance for life and strength. May the time never 
come when I cannot find some food for mind and heart on 
Hiram Hill ! " 



\ 



** ho 

41 & 



IMJ 







CHAPTER XII. 



SMITTEN DOWN. 




"Old memories cluster about us to-night, 

WLispering ever of scenes that were all blessing-crowned. 

Leading out of the darkness and into the light ; 
Yet the sins of the world that so thickly abound, 
Produce sorrow profound." 

— Farningham. 

HE first thing the new President had to do was to 
select his Cabinet. And this was a matter of no 
I little difficulty. 
He had at once to put his thoughts to his work, and try- 
to forget all that had been and all that might be. He could 
not help thinking a little of the changes which life had 
brought him. How far away was the log-cabin of his boy- 
hood, the piles of wood he had chopped, the old books which 
he had first learned to read ! God had been with the father- 
less boy, and was with him now that new responsibilities 
and duties were about him, and that he had harder work to 
do than any to which he had before put his hands. " He 
was still a son, a husband, a father, a brother, a friend, a 
citizen ; and yet he was in the seat of a king. To fill 
the duties of these widely-separated positions, as he 



256 NEW WORLD HEROES. 

nobly filled them, was one of his greatest claims to human 
greatness." 

The position he was in, and the dangers he had to 
encounter, were these : — He wanted to preserve peace and 
tranquillity, and he was most anxious not to continue the 
office-seeking tendencies of the men of the United States. 
He owed something to those who had supported him, and 
would have been glad to prove his gratitude ; but if he gave 
them all the offices, the other party would be aggrieved. If 
he gave the places to those who had opposed him, many 
would be ready to call it bribery, and declare that he sought 
to conciliate them in view of a second term. "If he 
appointed Hon. James G. Blaine, then he should offend 
Hon. Roscoe Conkling, who was the leading opponent of 
Mr. Blaine at the Chicago Convention. If he appointed 
Mr. Conkling, then Mr. Blaine or his friends would accuse 
the President of partisanship. If he appointed both, there 
would be a dangerous lack of harmony in the Cabinet. If 
he omitted them all, and their supporters, there was but a 
small class from which to choose his councillors. So, 
endeavouring to look at the question from a citizen's stand- 
point, but knowing that he could not please all, he selected 
those who, while they represented each prominent political 
movement of the day, would be willing to hide their partisan 
and personal differences for the sake of the public good." 

His Cabinet was presently announced as follows : — 
Secretary of State, James G. Blaine of Maine ; Secretary of 
the Treasury, William Windom of Minnesota ; Attorney- 
General, Wayne MacVeagh of Pennsylvania ; Secretary of 
War, Robert T. Lincoln of Illinois ; Secretary of the Navy, 
William H. Hunt of Louisiana ; Secretary of the Interior, 
Samuel J. Kirkwood of Iowa, and General James, Post- 
master-General of New York. 

That the President had not pleased every one was soon 
apparent. Senator Conkling was especially angry that he 



SMITTEN DOWN. 257 

had not been consulted in regard to the appointment of 
Judge Robertson to be the Collector of the Port of New 
York. The President, over-worked and burdened as ho 
was, did not bear the Senator's attacks as patiently as he 
otherwise might have done ; and, in his anger, withdrew 
several of the friends of Senator Conkling from their 
appointments. The quarrel was very bitter and disastrous. 
Sentor Conkling was a man of great influence in the Senate, 
and was very much honoured and respected throughout the 
country. People began to choose sides. "It stirred up 
the whole nation," said an American writer ; " created 
antagonisms, encouraged enmities, injured the public 
business, created a distrust of our institutions, tending to 
hinder prosperity, and all on account of petty personal spite, 
and unconsidered wilfulness ! " 

Among the rest of the disappointed party-seekers was 
Charles J. Guiteau, an immoral, licentious, dishonest man, 
by profession a lawyer. He was clever and unscrupulous. 
He could not succeed as a lawyer, and was imprisoned in 
the New York jail for swindling. He then turned his 
attention to literature, and having been connected with 
certain religious bodies, he thought that he could make 
religious literature a success. He wrote a book called 
Truth, and published it. He had a plausible manner, and 
managed to ingratiate himself with clergymen and churches, 
and then practised his dishonesty upon them. 

He was one of the first to apply to President Garfield for 
an appointment. The President said he would see him 
again ; and this he took, or pretended to take, as a promise. 
He called at the White House the day after the inaugura- 
tion, and then wrote to the President. Next, he followed 
him about, waiting for him when he was calling at other 
houses, and in all possible ways intruding himself upon 
Garfield's notice. At last he received a very decided reply. 
"I tell you frank 1 7 that I do not consider you a suitable 



258 FEW WORLD HEROES. 

man to send to Marseilles as consul, or to fill any office 
under the State whatever." 

This aroused the cruel hatred of the unscrupulous ofiice- 
seeker, who at once vowed to himself to be revenged. 

" Nothing less than murder," he said ; and the affair of 
Senator Conkling made him believe that the President had 
many enemies, who would not only rejoice in the fact of his 
assassination, but would shield the murderer. 

In the midst of his troubles President Garfield had yet 
another : Mrs. Garfield fell ill. 

"I have never been well in Washington," she said, 
piteously, " and the excitement of the time has been more 
than I can endure." 

"You must have a change as soon as you are able to bear 
the journey," said her husband. 

" I suppose you could not go also 1 You, too, are looking 
worn and ill." 

" Not at present ; soon I may be able." But Mrs. 
Garfield grew worse, and the illness developed into a malady 
from which the gravest consequences were feared. The 
shadow on the face of the President grew deeper then. He 
could not forget his sick wife, no matter how many and 
great his public duties were. He hurried into the sick-room 
many times during the day, and sought to cheer her by his 
merry words and tender caresses, though he was himself full 
of care and trouble. 

But his wife grew worse instead of better, and several 
whole nights were passed by the devoted husband by the 
sick bed. 

"What avails human honours in the case of such suffering 
and anxiety 1 " he frequently thought ; and many a prayer 
went up to God that He would not take from him the 
dear companion of his life. And the prayer was heard. 
Gradually the invalid came back to strength after the crisis 
had been passed and at last there came a time when the 



SMITTEN DOWN. 259 

doctor counselled removal to a more healthy neighbourhood. 
It was decided that she was to go to Long Branch, a beauti- 
ful little place of resort on the coast of New Jersey. Her 
daughter Molly went with her, and the fine sea breezes soon 
restored her to perfect health. 

It was then that the President decided to take holiday, 
and go to New England. His two eldest sons were to go 
too, and several members of his Cabinet. Mrs. Garfield and 
Molly were to leave Long Branch and travel to New York, 
and there join her husband. Together they would all, 
including Molly, go from New York up the beautiful 
river Hudson, in a little steamer which the President 
had chartered. They would go as far as a fine mansion 
that stood on the banks of the Hudson, and there they 
would spend a peaceful, happy Sabbath of rest. After- 
wards the President had promised to visit Williamstown, 
and take part in the commencement ceremony at Williams 
College, where he hoped to meet many of his old friends and 
class-mates, and have a pleasant reunion. And as soon as 
that was over — hurrah for New England and the White 
Mountains ! 

It was no wonder that it was a very cheerful party that 
left the White House on that eventful Saturday momma-. 
The President felt as if he were coming safely out of all his 
troubles. Things appeared to be settling down into quiet. 
The disappointed seekers were learning to submit to the 
inevitable. The country was looking forward hopefully. 
Good harvests were in the fields, and plenty of trade in 
the towns. It was the time of sunshine and of cheer. The 
trees and flowers, the waters and hills, were looking the:r 
best in the summer robes of gladness, and the faithful heart 
of the hardly-pressed man had grown quiet within him. He 
had earned a rest, and the time had come. 

Yes, indeed, it had, in a sense of which he did not dream. 

Charles Guiteau had bided his opportunity, but he had 



260 NEW WORLD HEROES. 

not swerved from his murderous intention. He had several 
times hidden in dark places with his cocked pistol, but his 
heart had failed him when the time came for his pulling 
the trigger. 

He nearly did the deed on the occasion when the Presi- 
dent went to the railway station to see his wife off on her 
journey to Long Branch. The loving pair, engrossed in 
one another, did not notice the presence of the assassin, as 
he stood scowlingly looking on. 

The President lifted his wife tenderly from the carriage, 
and there was a fine opportunity for shooting him down 
then. But some feeling of pity prevented. The sight of 
the thin hands and pale sweet face of the suffering wife 
touched even his heart, and he put the revolver back into 
his pocket. 

" I will wait until she is better," he said. 

And he took more time to consider. He knew, of course, 
that his deed would at once arouse the mob, and that he 
might be lynched. This he did not desire. He wanted all 
the world to be talking of him, and the papers to be filled 
with his name. He had on his person a letter, asking that 
a military escort might conduct him to prison in safety. 

When he read in the papers the account of the antici- 
pated journey of the President, he thought that would be a 
good time and opportunity to do the deed. There would be 
no pale-faced woman to hinder him this time, and he 
might not only kill one man but two. Secretary Blaine 
had been as deaf to his requests for office as the President 
himself. He might as well be shot at the same time. 

So he went down to the railway station, and waited for 
his victim, or victims, as the case might be. 

He reached the depot half-an-hour before the Presidential 
party, and waited. Policeman Kearney was one of the men 
stationed there, and he noticed the evil expression on the 
man's face, and the restless nervousness ot his manner. 



SMITTEN D WN. 2 6 1 

The President's carriage was seen coming down the 
street; and Guiteau went to a cabman, and asked, "Can 
you drive me off in a hurry if I should need you *? " 

" Oh, yes, sir," was the reply. 

The next moment the carriage drove up. The President 
and Secretary Blaine were in it, alone together. The 
President stepped out, and spoke to the policeman — 

11 How much time have we before the train will start 1 " 

The policeman looked at his watch, and replied, " You 
have ten minutes, President." 

" Thank you," was the reply ; and the President turned 
at once to pass through the reception room. 

Immediately a shot was fired. The President did not 
appear to hear it, and the policeman thought some boy had 
let off a cracker in honour of the occasion. 

But then a second shot was heard, and the policeman, 
looking up, saw Guiteau with a revolver, and saw the 
President turn and stumble. 

Secretary Blaine at once cried out, " My God, he's been 
murdered ! What is the meaning of this ? " 

The policeman tried to seize the assassin, shouting, " In 
God's name, man, what did you shoot the President for 1 " 

Instantly there was wild commotion. The first to realise 
the true state of affairs was Mr. Lincoln. He was the son 
of a murdered President, and could well guess the meaning 
of what had happened. He at once gave orders for the 
troops to hold themselves in readiness, and a strong force of 
policemen, summoned by telephone, soon appeared. So also 
did Surgeon-General Barnes, and Drs. Norris, Lincoln, and 
^Yoodward. 

The President's son could not quite understand what 
had happened. He looked at his father, but as there was 
only a little blood to be seen, he did not realise that the 
wound might be fatal. It is said that he doubled up his 
fist and looked as if he would like to light some one. 



2G2 NEW WORLD HEROES. 

There were several persons who saw it all, just as it 
happened, and who afterwards reduced to writing that which 
they knew. Of course, the intense excitement of the time 
would stamp the least incident indelibly on the memory of 
every one who witnessed it. 

One of these was Mrs. White, the woman in charge of the 
ladies' room. She was the first to reach the President when 
he had been shot down. This is her account : — 

" I was standing in the ladies' room, and saw the Presi- 
dent as he entered in company with Secretary Blaine. The 
latter had stepped a little in advance as they entered the 
door, as if to give the President more room. I had noticed 
this man Guiteau lounging about the ladies' room for a half- 
hour before the arrival of the President. I did not like his 
appearance from the first time I saw him. It is my business 
to see that such characters do not loaf around the ladies' 
room, and I thought seriously of having him pointed out to 
our watchman, Mr. Scott, so that he should be made to stay 
in the gentlemen's room. When the President and Secretary 
Blaine entered he was standing near the door. He wheeled 
to the left and fired, evidently aiming for the heart. It 
was a quick shot, and struck the President in the left arm. 
The President did not at first seem to realise that he had 
been struck, although Secretary Blaine at once stepped to 
one side as though dazed at this, unexpected movement. 
The President then partly turned round, and the assassin, 
advancing two steps, fired the second time — the whole thing 
being the work of a few moments. The President advanced 
one step, then fell upon the floor. I ran to him at 
once and raised his head, and held it in that position until 
some gentlemen came ; and we remained until his son camo 
from the car where he was seated, with the rest of the Presi- 
dential party awaiting the arrival of his father. The 
entire party followed in to the scene, and a large crowd 
gathered about the prostrate form very quickly. When I 



SMITTEN DOWN. 2G3 

had a chance to look about me, I saw Guiteau trying to 
wrench himself from those who held him. When the Presi- 
dent fell it was about twenty-five minutes past nine a.m. 
A mattress was brought in, and the President was removed 
to the upper floor of the depot. The President had on a 
light drab travelling suit and a silk hat, which latter was 
badly battered in the fall. When I ran to him he was 
deathly pale, but perfectly conscious. His son was kneeling 
beside him at the time. He asked me if I knew who shot 
hi3 father, and I replied, 'Yes, and he is caught.' He said 
somebody would have to pay for this. The young man and 
I thought the President was dying, so pale was he. He 
tried to raise his head, and get his hand on the wound near 
the thigh, but he was too weak to do so." 

Mr. James P. Young, of the Philadelphia Star, says of 
the occurrence : — " I reached the depot of the Baltimore and 
Potomac Railroad at about nine o'clock, intending to take 
the limited express train for New York. It leaves at half- 
past nine. I found the depdt full of people ; some going 
south, some west, and others on the train. I was to take 
north. I passed through the ladies' reception room, where 
the shooting took place, to the main or general reception 
room, where the ticket-office is located. After purchasing 
my ticket, I proceeded immediately to the train, which was 
standing on the track, south of the main building of the 
depot, say about a hundred yards from the ladies' reception 
room. After locating my seat in the car, I descended to 
the depdt platform. There I met Mr. Barclay, the old 
journal clerk of the house, and Messrs. Kilburn and Adams, 
of the newspaper press of the city, who were about to leave 
with their families for the north. We stood just opposite 
the special train, which was waiting for the President; 
In it were some dozen people, more than half of whoni 
were ladies — the wives, sons, and daughters of Secretaries 
Windom and Hunt, Postmaster-General James, Colonel 



264 NEW WORLD HEROES. 

Rockwell, and others of the Presidential party. They were a 
merry party, laughing and joking with the numerous friends 
who had come down to see them off for a fortnight's holiday 
and frolic. Soon Secretaries Windom and Hunt came out 
of the car, and began promenading up and down the plat- 
form, quietly smoking their cigars. Later, Postmaster- 
General James alighted from the car, and joined our 
party. 

"We began congratulating him and ourselves that we 
were to escape the fearfully hot weather, and were trying 
to joke him about the Administration leaving business for 
pleasure, when a young man stepped up to Mr. James, and 
said to him, excitedly, that the President had been shot. 

" Mr. James turned and said, ' What ! There is no joke 
in a thing like that.' 

" His informant, almost scared to death, replied, ' I assure 
you it is true.' 

" Without another word Mr. James turned and ran to 
the depot building, and we all naturally followed him. 
When I reached the ladies' reception rooms the doors were 
being closed. There were at least two hundred people in 
and around the building, and I began to inquire if the news 
I had heard was true. It took only a moment to find out 
that it was. I could not gain admission at the inside door 
of the room where the President was, so I ran out into the 
street, hoping to be more successful at the street entrance. 
There I found a big crowd already gathered, and a police- 
man and some others hurriedly hustling a man outside. 
This was the assassin. I did not follow, as my desire was 
to learn the extent of the President's wound. Not being 
able to gain admittance at the door, I saw an open window, 
gay about ten feet from the ground. A coloured news-boy 
was climbing in, and I concluded to follow suit. It was 
not more than half-a-minute's work before I got inside. 
The first person I saw was Secretary Windom. He was 



SMITTEN DOWN. 265 

standing alone, as pale as death, and the tears were trickling 
down his cheeks. Knowing him well, I said — 

" ' Mr. Secretary, where is the President, and what does 
this mean V 

"He replied, 'There he lies, in yonder corner, in that 
group. It is as much of a mystery to me as it is to you ! ' 

" I moved over about two yards, and there I saw the 
President lying on a mattress, which had been hastily 
brought from the sleeping apartment by one of the 
depot employees. There were probably thirty people around 
him, many of whom were women, who had been waiting for 
the southern trains. 

" Secretary Blaine had hold of one of the President's 
hands, and Postmaster-General James was assisting to get 
him into a sitting posture. His face showed a deathly pale- 
ness, and he had a look of surprise, as if caused by pain and 
despair. He was vomiting, and seemed to have no control 
of himself. His coat and vest had been ripped from him, 
and his trousers loosened. The matter he had vomited had 
fallen on his shirt below the bosom, which made it seem as 
if the ball of the assassin had penetrated the intestines. 
Near him was his son, a lad of sixteen. Poor boy, he was 
almost beside himself. He wrung his hands, and cried in a 
piteous manner. With him were the son of Colonel Rock- 
well, and Secretary Hunt, who, in every way natural to 
human beings, were trying to comfort him. In less than ten 
minutes Secretary Blaine gave orders to have the President 
removed to the upper floor of the depot, to the officer's room, 
where there were plenty of air, and a freedom from the mob 
which was rapidly gathering. Colonel Rockwell and 
Adjutant-General Corbin soon made a passage-way, and the 
President was borne by a number of the coloured porters of 
the depot to the upper floor. I immediately left the depot, 
and hurriedly went up Pennsylvania Avenue. Although 
it was not an hour since the shooting took place, I found 



2G6 NEW WORLD HEROES. 

the Avenue crowded with people — some standing in groups, 
regardless of the broiling hot sun, discussing the event; 
others hurrying towards the depdt; others pushing, and 
rushing, and wending their way no one knows where." 

The first thing to do was to try to get the President 
back to the White House. A police ambulance was provided, 
and the President was carefully carried down on the mattress, 
and placed upon it. The ambulance, surrounded by mounted 
police, was then driven slowly back over the route along 
which, in such excellent spirits, he had driven in the state 
carriage only an hour before. He was taken to the large 
room on the south side of the White House, and there 
watched by agonised friends, while the gateways were all 
closed, and armed sentries kept the place clear of all but 
those who held the right to enter. 

The day was exceedingly hot, but people stood in the sun, 
asking, with white lips, "Will he die?" "What do the 
doctors say?" They said they feared he would die. He 
seemed to be weak and faint ; but he was conscious. 

Dr. Smith Townsend was the first to examine him. 

"What do you think, doctor?" the President asked of 
the medical man. 

" I do not consider it very serious," was the reply. 

" I thank you, doctor, but I am a dead man," said the 
President. 

He said afterwards to Dr. Ford, " I am very glad to 
know my condition. I can bear it." 

He spoke very calmly, as if he were not afraid to die. 
Indeed, the piety which, through all his life, he had mani- 
fested was beautifully exhibited now. He had found that 
faith in God, and the desire to please Him, had enabled him 
to bear quietly the ups and downs of existence ; and he 
found now that it could keep him steady and tranquil 
when the crisis had come. He had the blessedness of 
knowing that he was safe, whether he would live or die. 



CHAPTER XIII. 



THE WIFE AND MOTHER. 




" The vision of a Christian man, 
In virtue, as in stature, great, 
Embodied in a Christian state ; 
And thou, amidst thy sisterhood, 
Forbearing long, yet standing fast, 
Shall win our grateful thanks at last." 

— Whittier. 

RS. GARFIELD and Miss Molly had arisen that 

morning in the joyous expectation of meeting 

their beloved one. A shock scarcely less violent 

than that caused by the bullet of the assassin was in store 

for them when they heard the evil new r s. 

It did not tarry long. 

General Swain was fortunately with them, and to him the 
first telegram was sent. It was as follows : — 

" The President has been shot, and I am afraid is 
seriously wounded. Keep it from Mrs. Garfield till you 
hear further." 

The General was deeply distressed ; but he resolved to do 
as he had been told, and say nothing about it. So he put 
the telegram in his pocket, and went to the drawing-room to 



268 2\ T EW WORLD HEROES. 

talk about anything but that which was uppermost in his 
mind. 

"This is one of the hottest days we have had, Mrs. 
Garfield." 

"Yes. It will be all the more delightful to get away 
to the White Mountains because of the heat we have 
experienced here. It has no doubt been still less endurable 
at Washington. I am glad my husband is going for a real 
holiday." 

The General endeavoured to conceal his emotions, and 
look as cool and unconcerned as if nothing had happened ; 
but he waited anxiously for the next message. It was not 
long in coming. 

" We have the President safely and comfortably settled 
in the Executive Mansion, and his pulse is strong and 
nearly normal. So far as I can determine, and from what 
the surgeons say, and from his general condition, we feel very 
hopeful. Come on as soon as you can get a special train. 
Advise us of the movements of your train, and when you can 
be expected. As the President said on a similar occasion 
sixteen years ago, 'God reigns, and the Government in 
Washington still lives.' " 

It was necessary now to break the news to Mrs. Garfield. 
General Swain tried to speak quietly, but his face and the 
tones of his voice declared that something was amiss. 

" Mrs. Garfield," he said, " it may be necessary for us to 
go direct to Washington. An accident has happened to 
the President." 

Mrs. Garfield and Molly both turned very pale. 

" Oh, General, tell me the truth at once," said the 
agonised wife. 

" So far as I am informed," said the General, " the 
accident is not so serious as was at first supposed." 

"But what was the accident? Do not deceive me; I 
cannot bear the suspense." 



THE WIFE AND MOTHER. 2G9 

Then the General, as gently as he could, told her exactly 
what had happened. 

" We must go at once," said Mrs. Garfield, rising, but 
she could scarcely stand. 

"Mr. Swain and I will make all preparations, mother," 
said Molly. " Do you keep quiet for a little time." 

Presently a telegram came for her. The President had 
thought of his wife with a great longing to see her, and a 
great fear that in her present state of health the trouble 
would prove more than she could bear. 

" Send this message to her," he said ; " say that I have 
been seriously hurt, but at present I do not know how 
seriously. Tell her that I am myself, and hope she will 
come to me soon. And give my love to her." 

This was accordingly despatched at once. Mrs. Garfield 
received it and two others : one signed J. S. Brown, and 
another Alonzo B. Cornell : — 

" Don't believe sensational despatches about the President. 
Will keep you constantly advised." 

" Please accept my earnest sympathy and sincere hope 
for the early and complete restoration of the President. 
Intense feeling of indignation prevails throughout Albany." 

At a few minutes before twelve o'clock a carriage was at 
the door, and Mrs. Garfield was on her journey. A special 
parlour car was waiting for her at the station, which went 
away at express speed, and reached Washington at seven. 

A few minutes after the carriage rolled up to the door of 
the White House, and Mrs. Garfield alighted. 

The most respectful sympathy was shown to her by all 
parties ; and tears came into the eyes of some who looked at 
her anxious face. She strove to keep calm, and hurried at 
once to the side of her husband. He looked up and met 
her gaze with a sad smile. She began to speak to him in 
low whispers, and he answered her quietly. Her conduct 
provoked the admiration of the physicians, for she was 



270 NEW WORLD HEROES. 

absolutely controlled, and exhibited not the least emotion. 
But it was thought unwise to allow the interview to be a 
long one, and one of the doctors told her so. 

" I must leave you for a few minutes," she said to her 
husband. " I will come again soon." 

She was escorted to the door by two of the doctors, and 
as soon as she was out of her husband's sight, she broke 
down completely and bitterly sobbed aloud. 

After a time she begged for another interview with her 
husband, asking that she might see him alone. This was 
granted, and the room was cleared of all but the family. 
This time Mrs. Garfield remained with her husband for half 
an hour, and at the end of the time the physicians pro- 
nounced him no worse, but slightly better ; although a little 
time before Dr. Bliss had said, "There is no hope for him ; 
he will not probably live three hours, and may die in half 
an hour." 

His son James was with him at one time, and broke out 
into sobs of distress at witnessing the sufferings of his 
father. 

" Jimmy, my son, hope for the best," said the President. 

Next to the members of the President's own family, Secre- 
tary Lincoln seemed to be the most smitten with sorrow. 
When the doctors told him that the President's case was 
almost hopeless, he said, " My God, what hours of sorrow 
I have passed in this town ! " 

Postmaster-General James said, " Do you remember how 
often General Garfield has referred to your father during 
the past few days 1 " 

"Yes," said Mr. Lincoln; "and it was only the night 
before last that I entered into a detailed recital of the 
events of that awful night." 

Bulletins were issued every half-hour all the evening, and 
hope alternated with fear. 

"The President's condition is not perceptibly changed 



TEE WIFE AND MOTUEE. 271 

either for the better or the worse. His voice is strong, his 
mind unimpaired, and he talks freely with those about 
him." 

"The President is again sinking, and there is little, if 
any, hope." 

" The President has rallied a little within the last three- 
quarters of an hour, and his symptoms are a little more 
favourable. He continues brave and cheerful. About the 
time he began to rally he said to Dr. Bliss, * Doctor, what 
are the indications 1 ' ' There is a chance of recovery.' 
' Well, then, we will take that chance.' The President is 
still sleeping." 

11 Mrs. Garfield, although weak from her recent illness, 
and shocked by the suddenness of the grief that has come 
upon her, has behaved since her arrival with a courage and 
self-control equal to that of her husband. Not only has 
she not given way to the terror and grief which she 
necessarily feels, but she has been constantly by the 
President's side, encouraging him with her presence and 
sympathy, and giving efficient aid, so far as has been in 
her power, to the attending physicians." 

Two telegrams came from England, signed by Earl 
Granville — 

" Is it true that President Garfield has been shot at 1 If 
so, express at once great concern of Her Majesty's Govern- 
ment, and our hope that report that he has sustained serious 
injury is not true." 

" The Queen desires that you will at once express the 
horror with which she has learned of the attempt upon the 
President's life, and her earnest hope for his recovery. Her 
Majesty wishes for full and immediate reports as to his 
condition." 

There was an old lady in the meantime staying at Solon 
to whom many thoughts turned. 

" The President's mother ! What of her 1 Poor old lady, 



272 KEW WORLD HEROES. 

it will kill her," said many who knew her. She was staying 
with her daughters, Mrs. Mary Larabee and Mrs. Mehetable 
Troubridge, upon their farms. A reporter went to see 
them in the morning after the occurrence. 

" What have you heard from Washington ? " was the 
anxious question put to him by one of the sisters of the 
President. 

" The last news is better," was the reply. 

" How does Mrs. Garfield bear the news 1 " he asked. 

" She has not heard a word of what has happened," 
replied Mrs. Larabee. " We are afraid to tell her." 

" She has already had great sorrow, for she has lately 
lost a brother." 

11 Mother is so wrapped up in James that we think it will 
be more than she can bear," said Mehetable. 

" Have you received tidings from Mrs. Garfield herself ? " 
inquired the reporter. 

"A telegram came to mother a little while ago from 
Harry Garfield, the President's son." 

" May I see it 1 " 

" Certainly." 

' '• Executive Mansion, 2nd July. 

"To Mrs. Eliza Garfield, Solon, Ohio. 

" Don't be alarmed by sensational rumours. Doctor thinks 
it will not be fatal. Don't think of coming until you hear 
further. Harry A Garfield." 

" I suppose you had heard of the attempted assassination 
before you had this message ? " asked the reporter of the 
President's sisters. 

" We had not heard until the extra special editions of 
the papers came in," said Mrs. Troubridge. " My daughter 
from Brooklyn Tillage came over from Cleveland this 
morning, and brought us a copy containing the terrible 
news. We could not at first believe it. But as we read 



THE WIFE AND MOTHER. 273 

the bulletins we felt that they were only too true. Harry's 
telegram came later, and gave us a little hope." 

" When will you break the news to Mrs. Garfield 1 " 

" Not yet ; we will wait till to-morrow." 

But the next morning she was better, and seemed more 
talkative. 

" Last Sunday, Thomas was buried ; to-day, Cornelia. 1 
wonder who it will be next Sunday, said his mother. " 

Mrs. Larabee came in. 

" Are you going to Mrs. Arnold's funeral ? " asked the 
old lady of her daughter Mary. 

"No, mother; something has happened. I'm afraid I 
cannot go." 

" What has happened 1 " 

" We have heard that James is hurt." 

" How 1 By the cars 1 " 

" No ; he has been shot." 

" Shot by an accident ? " 

" No ; by an assassin. But he was not killed." 

"The Lord help me!" 

" I think he will get through. The last news was more 
favourable. I guess he is resting and getting better." 

" When did you hear this ? " asked Mrs. Garfield, 
presently. 

" Yesterday noon. But we thought it better not to tell 

you." 

" Thank you. I am glad you did not tell me. It was 
very thoughtful of you. I was afraid something had 
happened yesterday. I saw a strange look on your face, 
but I had not the courage to ask what it meant. Let me 
see all the despatches as they come." 

One came soon from Harry Garfield. 

"Thank God, he lives this morning, and the doctors 
are very hopeful. He has been perfectly himself all the 
time." 

b 18 



274 NEW WORLD HEROES. 

.Again news came; and the old lady said — "How coula 
anybody be so cold-hearted as to want to kill my baby ! " 

The next telegram was still hopeful. 

" I am glad to hear it," she replied ; " but I am afraid 
we are hoping against fate. It seems terrible." 

She herself sent the following telegram to Washington : — 

" The news was broken to me this morning, and shocked 
me very much. Since receiving your telegram I feel more 
hopeful. Tell James that I hear he is cheerful, and that I 
am glad of it. Tell him to keep in good spirits, and accept 
the love and sympathy of a mother, sister, and friend, 

"Eliza Garfield." 

The following little domestic incident was told by one of 
the writers on the subject : — " Miss Molly was very brave, 
and forced herself to assume a calmness which she could 
not feel. 

" Oh, papa, I am so glad to get back to you, but I'm so 
sorry to see you in this way," she said. 

The President put his arm around her. "Molly, you 
are a brave, good girl," he whispered, and drew her down to 
kiss her. 

" Well, I'm not going to talk to you now ; wait till you 
get well," said the little girl, who walked out of the room, 
followed by a beaming smile from the President. He soon 
fell asleep, with one hand in the hand of Mrs. James. 

When he awoke he said, "Do you know where Mrs. 
Garfield is now 1 " 

" Oh, yes," said Mrs. James ; " she is close by, waiting 
and praying for her husband." 

He looked up with an anxious face, and said, " I want her 
to go to bed ; will you tell her that I say if she will undress 
and go to bed I will turn right over, and I feel sure that 
when I know she is in bed, i can go to sleep, and sleep all 
nijrht 1 " 



THE WIFE AND MOTHER. 275 

" Tell her," he added, with sudden energy, " that I will 
sleep all night if she will only do as I ask." 

M s. James took the message, and Mrs. Garfield replied, 
u Go back and tell him that I am undressing." 

She did so, and he almost immediately fell asleep. 

That Sunday was a very different one from that which 
they expected to spend on the banks of the Hudson. 

Happily the President seemed to revive. "Doctor," 
he said at one time, " you have changed my programme a 
little. I had prepared to meet death philosophically, but 
you have changed all that." 

One of the attendants said, " I believe he has made up his 
mind that he won't die, and that he will fight it out." 

In the evening a despatch came from the President's 
mother asking if she might come and see her son." 

She was told that the symptoms were more favourable, 
but she was advised not to come. 

A writer said of the conduct of the President, when he 
lay between life and death — "When first wounded, his 
thought was of his wife and little ones, and how to spare 
them pain. His mother's anxiety was also uppermost in his 
mind. He was once told that he had only a single chance 
of life, and he said, ' I am not afraid to die.' He was very 
considerate of others. He moved his arm while in a 
paroxysm of pain and just touched a little rudely one of his 
kind-hearted watchers. Instantly he lost all thought for 
himself, and his lips parted with a heartfelt apology. His 
demeanour towards his noble-hearted wife has been 
chivalrous in the extreme. He has ever sought her ease 
and welfare, and to keep her from all anxiety and suspense. 
When she first entered his room he met her with a smiling 
face, and he has had a smile and a word of cheer for her 
ever since, even though his sufferings have been at times 
very great. With true wifely devotion, too, has Mrs. 
Garfield borne herself ; and her cheerful, hopeful demeanour 






276 NEW WORLD HEROES. 

ba3 done much to free from care her husband's mind. He 
feared for her ; and she, knowing his fear, steeled herself by 
a mighty effort. To no one has she made a complaint, to 
no one has her husband uttered aught but words of kind- 
ness. They have been a model husband and wife under 
circumstances most trying to their natures. Each has 
brought solace to the other, and the wife has ministered at 
the bedside of her liege with an intelligence none the less 
powerful and efficient than the love she has shown. Such 
stories spread. All are only too willing to help embalm in 
the memory of friends the ministry of love and gentleness, 
of kindness and devotion which the National Executive 
Mansion discloses. There is a hero-worship here that is 
carried out to a surprising extent ; but the people know and 
feel that there is a good basis for much that they believe, 
and the glamour of devotion adds bright and attractive 
colours to the picture, and gives it a setting of love." 

Throughout that Sunday, prayers were offered for the 
wounded President in all churches and chapels, not only 
of America, but all lands. It was no wonder that in his 
own country people waited with hushed breath and beating 
heart for news, and that they joined with sincere earnest- 
ness in the prayers. From every town came messages 
expressive of indignation, and in every pulpit references 
were made to the event. In the Disciples' church at 
Washington, which General Garfield and his family attended, 
and which was thronged, an earnest prayer ascended to God. 
'* Oh, save him, God ! We know not what is best for Thee to 
do : but if it be Thy will, oh, for Christ's sake, have mercy. 
Lord bless the dear sister, his companion, herself but 
recently escaped from death. May she be consoled in 
spirit, and may Providence surround her ! Lead her 
children in the path of righteousness, save them from sin, 
and lead them to honour and glory. May there go up from 
thousands upon thousands of sorrowing homes to-day 



THE WIFE AND MOTHER. 277 

throughout all the land an earnest prayer for tho stricken 
President." 

The Rev. Henry Ward Beecher said : — " It is not fitting 
that we should go hence before we remember the stricken 
family of President Garfield in their exquisite suffering. 
In England, noble women are educated for public affairs, 
and when put in places of honour, they demean themselves 
with peculiar propriety. We are a Democratic-Republican 
people, and our women are educated particularly for 
domesticity and seclusion. It is a matter for congratula- 
tion, when the President of the nation has reached his 
high position, that he has a wife and household who know 
how to become their elevated station, as if born heirs to titles 
and courts. If we look at the wives of the Presidents, we 
see almost not a single cloud in the long succession. The 
succession is not changed. When that model in the family 
relation, Mrs. Hayes, left the White House, it seemed as 
though an equal to her distinguished worth, as mother, wife, 
and woman, that had rejoiced the hearts of the people, could 
not be found. But Mrs. Garfield, while differing much, is 
worthy to succeed her, and need not fear to compare with 
any of her predecessors. She has just come up from the 
borders of death, only to meet her husband in peril. Then 
there is the venerable mother, who should have long pre- 
ceded her son, who now seems likely to come after him. 
To-day, if there is any woman here with a heart to pray for 
the stricken family, and who remembers the sanctities of 
the household, let her seek God's blessing on the smitten 
ones." 

Mr. Beecher then prayed with deep and earnest feeling 
for the President's mother, and wife, and his children. 
There was scarcely a dry eye among the women in the 
church when he had ended, and tears found their way to 
the eyes of many men. In closing the petition, he said : — 
" Wilt Thou sustain the wounded man 1 And if the way 



278 



HEW WORLD HEROES. 



of darkness shall open for him — which must open some time 
for all feet to tread — will God be gracious, and enable him 
to say, ' I fear no evil ; Thy rod and Thy staff, they com- 
fort me.' May there come to us a voice of triumph from 
beyond. Lord God of our fathers ! — our God !— comfort 
the family, the Government, the nation, and the country ; 
and enable all to say earnestly, no matter what the event 
may be, ' Thy will be done. ! ' n 




CHAPTER XIV. 



A FIGIIT FOR LIFE. 



' ' The dear Lord's best interpreters 
Are humble human souls ; 
The gospel of a life like his 
Is more than books or scrolls." 




ILL he live or die r i " 

This was the question asked by thousands of 
people every day, not only in America, but in 
Europe. We have not yet forgotten how, during the 
struggle for life, which lasted for eighty days, people in 
England were more eager to read the tidings from the 
United States than anything else in the newspapers. 

In America the fight was watched with the most solemn 
anxiety. As is usual in such cases, the people discovered 
that the President was a nobler man than they had 
thought, and far dearer to them than they had imagined. 
Every one felt that his own friend lay in that house, " sick 
nnto death," unless God in His mercy and wisdom should 
interpose ; and many who had before been indifferent 
became intensely earnest then. The South as well as the 
North — the affected and the disaffected — became at once 
loyal and kindly. Many incidents were told of individuals 



280 NEW WORLD HEROES. 

and of companies taking a strong personal interest in that 
strife between life and death that went on so Ions: at 
Washington. 

"A coloured man stood waiting at the main entrance, just 
outside the grounds attached to the Executive Mansion. I 
could not help noticing him this morning as I passed in 
through the iron gates, and by the sentries who guarded 
the opening. He was emphatically hatless, shoeless, and 
shirtless. The few worn garments which invested his spare 
frame wanted only an apology for going to pieces. His 
frizzed hair and thin grey beard were dishevelled; but they 
seemed to gain a glory from the tints of the bright warm 
sunshine, whose heat was almost overpowering. Like an 
ancient servitor stood the old man, close to the sentries, and 
peered through the iron gates, whose portals he could not 
pass. When anyone came out of the grounds, he would 
approach, and eagerly listen for tidings. He kept his vigil 
well. When I told him the doctors had great hopes of 
saving the President, he said simply, but with fervour, 
* I thank God for that!'" 

The narrator of this incident added — " And so it i3 
everywhere about the city. Men are tearful, prayerful, 
and quiet. High and low share in the feelings of sympathy 
and devotion. The Cabinet officers and their wives — men of 
mark, who have won renown in battle, in debate, or in the 
marts of trade — all have the sense of personal bereavement. 
It stirs one to see old army veterans, some of them battle 
scarred, to whom wounds were mere child's play in war time, 
actually cry outright at the present sad calamity." 

Medical men in all parts of the world became especially 
interested. They would like to have been spectators of the 
struggle that was going on ; but the papers kept the public 
well-informed, not only in regard to the condition of the 
sufferer, but the medicines and plans adopted for his relief. 

As the weeks passed by, and he still lived, it was hoped 



A FIGHT FOR LIFE. 281 

that lie would surely recover. Many things were in his 
favour — his temperate life, his great courage and strength 
of endurance, his vitality and hopefulness. As July wore 
away, dread gave place to hopefulness. Three weeks after 
he was shot, however, there came a relapse. He seemed to 
recover from that, and on the 28th of July he was moved 
into an adjoining room. On Monday, the 8th of August, an 
operation was performed, and a new channel for the flow of 
the pus from the wound was opened. On the 11th of 
August he wrote a letter to his mother — the last he ever 
wrote — 

"Washington, lltli August 1881. 

" Dear Mother — Don't be disturbed by conflicting 
reports about my condition. It is true I am still weak 
and on my back, but I am gaining every clay, and need 
only time and patience to bring me through. Give my love 
to all the relatives and friends, especially to sisters Hetty 
and Mary. — Your loving son, 

"James A. Garfield." 

On Sunday, the 14th of August, the case took a new turn ; 
dyspepsia set in. On Tuesday, the 18th, it was feared that 
there was blood poisoning. On Saturday he seemed better, 
but Sunday was a bad day. On Wednesday, the 24th August, 
the glandular swelling was lanced. The following Sunday 
was a day of terrible suspense ; the President seemed to be 
in the Valley of the Shadow of Death. But he emerged 
from it, and was again better. 

It was thought that if he could only be removed to the 
sea, it would give him a better chance of life; and he 
himself was exceedingly anxious to get away from 
Washington. 

" Oh ! the sea, the beautiful sea," he said, with longing 
and hope. 

It was resolved to remove him thither, Mentor was too 



7 



282 NEW WORLD HEROES. 

far, but Long Branch was not impossible. The weather 
was very sultry, and the physicians thought there would be 
less risk to the patient in the journey than in remaining. 
He seemed to be sufficiently comfortable to warrant 
them in making the attempt on Wednesday, the 7th of 
September. 

The greatest anxiety was felt, for the distance from 
Washington to Long Branch was two hundred and thirty- 
eight miles. The General was himself very nervous. But 
the doctors administered morphine, and, while he was 
asleep under its influence, he was carried from his room, 
and placed on the couch in the railway carriage. This 
was safely and satisfactorily accomplished, and very slowly 
at first the train went on its way with its precious 
freight. 

Elaborate preparations had been made ; all trains were 
cleared out of the way ; and though the stations were 
thronged with people, every one was quiet and orderly. 
As far as Philadelphia the President seemed really to 
enjoy the ride, but then he grew restless and weary. At 
Seagirt, however, the salt breezes, blowing through the car, 
revived him, and he exclaimed again, " Oh, the beautiful 
sea ! " The journey lasted from six o'clock in the morning 
till one in the afternoon. Immediately on the arrival of the 
train the President was taken to the cottage of Mr. 
Francklyn, at Elberon, Long Branch, and though there 
were some unfavourable symptoms, he did not seem really 
worse. Indeed, he declared next morning that he was 
positively better. 

A day of fasting and prayer was appointed by all the 
Governors of the various States at the time President 
Garfield was removed to Long Branch ; and a Philadelphia 
paper related an incident connected with that solemn and 
universally observed day : — 

"Crete," said the President to his brave little wife, 



A FIGHT FOB LIFE. 283 

about eleven on Thursday morning, as the ringing strokes 
from the belfry of the Episcopal church, which was close 
to the cottage, reached his ears, " What are they ring- 
ins that bell for?" "That?" said Mrs. Garfield, who 

o 

was waiting for the surprise. "That's the church where 
we were when you first came down. They're all going to 
pray for you to get well ; " and, falling on her knees, she 
said, " and I'm going to pray too, James, that it may be 
soon ; for I know already that the other prayer has been 
heard." From where he lay, Garfield could see the carriages 
draw up, and group after group go in. He could even 
hear the subdued refrain of " Jesus, lover of my soul," as 
it was borne by on its heavenward way. Thrilled with 
emotion, a tear trickled down the President's face. After 
a while a woman's sweet voice arose, singing one of Sir 
Michael Costa's oratorios. "Turn thou unto Me," sang 
the voice, " for I am desolate ; I am desolate and afflicted : 
the troubles of my heart are enlarged. Oh, bring thou 
me out of my distresses, my God ! " The people in the 
church sat almost spell-bound under the voice. Mrs. 
George W. Childs, who sang the recitative, was affected 
deeply, and made it seem to all, what it must have been 
to her, a prayer of music. 

On Saturday, September the 17th, a severe chill set in, 
which lasted half-an-hour, and was followed by profuse 
perspirations and high fever. He got better afterwards, but 
the physicians knew the situation was exceedingly critical. 
On Sunday he had another attack of chill, and Monday, the 
19th, opened ominously with another. He suffered very 
much during these attacks, which left him fearfully weak 
and exhausted. It was feared that the end was near, and 
yet every one hoped as well as feared. He had got through 
all sorts of attacks so wonderfully, it was hoped that he 
w r ould even yet recover. 

But the hearts of his nearest grew very sick with dread. 



284 NEW WOULD HEROES. 

On Monday, September the 19th, the symptoms of the 
President's case were very discouraging, and nearly every 
one about him abandoned all hope of recovery. But he had 
held out so long ; the blood-poisoning, caused by the absorp- 
tion into the system of the discharge from the wound, had 
been so insidious and slow, that no one looked for his 
immediate death. Yet the gloomy presentiment was so 
strong upon the inmates of the cottage, that they involun- 
tarily began to mourn for him as one dead. An eye-witness 
related an incident which well illustrates the situation that 
day. 

Late in the morning the President expressed a wish to 
see his daughter Molly. When the child went into the 
room she kissed her father, and told him that she was glad 
to see that he was looking so much better. He said — 

" You think I do look better, Molly 1 " 

She said, " I do, papa ; " and then she took a chair and 
sat near the foot of the bed. 

A moment or two after, Dr. Boynton noticed that she was 
swaying in her chair. He stepped up to her, but before he 
could reach her she had fallen over in a dead faint. In 
falling, her face struck against the bed-post, and when they 
raised her from the floor, she was not only unconscious, but 
also bleeding from the contusion she had received. They 
carried her out, and she speedily recovered .The President, 
they thought, had not noticed what had happened to his 
petted child, for he seemed to have sunk into a stupor ; but 
when Dr. Boynton came back into the room, he was 
astonished to hear the President say — 

" Poor little Molly; she fell over like a log. What was 
the matter 1 " 

They assured the President that she was quite restored. 
He again sank into a stupor or sleep, which lasted until the 
noon examination. 

The end came at last unexpectedly. Juage Advocate- 



A FIGHT FOR LIFE. 285 

General Swain, who was present, gave the following 
account of the scene : — 

" It was my night to watch with the President. I had 
been with him a good deal of the time from three o'clock 
in the afternoon. A few minutes before ten o'clock I left 
Colonel Rockwell, with whom I had been talking for some 
minutes in the lower hall, and proceeded upstairs to the 
President's room. On entering I found Mrs. Garfield sitting 
by his bedside ; there was no one else in the room. 

" * How is everything going 1 ' I said. 

" ' He is sleeping nicely,' she replied. 

" ' I think you had better go to bed and rest,' I said. 

" I asked her what had been prescribed for the night. 
She replied that she did not know ; she had given him milk 
punch at eight o'clock. 

" I said, ' If you will wait a moment, I will go into the 
doctor's room and see what is to be given during the night. 
She answered, ' There is beef-tea downstairs. Daniel knows 
where it is.' Daniel was the coloured servant. I then went 
into the doctor's room. I found Dr. Bliss there, and asked 
what was to be given for the night. He answered, ' I think 
I had better fix up a lirt and bring it to you soon.' I went 
back to Mrs. Garfield, nd had further conversation with 
her. She felt the Pre -dent's hand, and laid her hand on 
his forehead. ' He seems to be in good condition,' she 
said, and passed out of the room. Dr. Boynton came in, 
and said the President's pulse, though not so strong as in 
the afternoon, was good. I said, ' He seems to be doing 
well.' He replied, ' Yes,' and passed out. 

"Shortly after this the President awoke. As he turned 
his head on awaking, I arose and took his hand. I 
remarked, ' You have had a nice comfortable sleep.' Ho 
then said, ' Oh, Swain, this terrible pain ! ' placing his right 
hand on his breast, over the region of the heart. I said, 
1 Can I get you anything 1 ' He said, • Some water.' I 



286 NEW WORLD HEROES. 

poured some out, and he took the glass in his hand and 
drank quite naturally. I then handed the glass to the 
coloured man Daniel. Afterward, I took a napkin and 
wiped his forehead, as he usually perspired on awaking. He 
said, ' Oh, Swain, this terrible pain ! Press your hand on 
it.' I laid my hand on his chest, and he threw up his arms 
to his head, and said, ' Oh, Swain, can't you stop this ! 
Oh, Swain ! ' 

"I then saw that he was looking at me with a staring 
expression. I spoke to him, but received no answer. I 
told Daniel to call Dr. Bliss and Mrs. Garfield. I saw that 
he was dying. Dr. Bliss came in, and I said, ' Doctor, have 
you any stimulants ; I think he is dying : ' and the doctor 
replied, ' Yes, he is dying.' I then said to Daniel, ' Run 
and rouse the house.' Colonel Rockwell came, and then 
Mrs. Garfield. She exclaimed, * Oh, why am I made to 
suffer this cruel wrong ! ' She laid her hand gently on her 
husband's face and breast. Molly Garfield was near the 
door. The President lay very still, only now and then 
gasping for breath ; and in about thirty minutes he peace- 
fully passed away. It was thought that death resulted 
from coagulation of the blood in the region of the heart." 

Miss Molly Garfield broke down completely, but the 
widow was firm, though strongly affected. 

There was nothing to say at that supreme moment, 
excepting " All is over," and " He was ready to die." 

At six o'clock the next morning Mrs. Larabee had a 
despatch announcing the death of her brother. Mrs. 
Garfield was asleep, and did not awake till eight o'clock. 
Her daughter did not tell her until she had finished 
breakfast. Then Miss Ellen Larabee said, " Grandma, 
would you be surprised to hear news this morning % " 

" Why, I don't know," said the old lady. 

" I should not," said Mrs. Larabee ; " I have been 
fearing and expecting all the morning." 



A FIGHT FOR LIFE. 287 

" Grandma/' said Ellen, " there is sad news." 

" Is he dead 1 " the little white-haired mother asked, 
tremulously. 

" He is," was the answer, spoken in low tones of sorrow. 

The quick tears started to her eyes, and there was a 
paroxysm of grief. 

" Is it true 1 Then the Lord help me, for if he is dead, 
what shall I do T' she said. 

She sat in her rocking chair waiting for news, and read 
the morning papers. " It cannot be that James is 
dead," she murmured ; " I cannot understand it. I have 
no further wish to live, and I cannot live if it is so." 

But after, she said, "I can firmly believe that God 
knows best, and I must not murmur." 

Soon afterwards she said to Mr. Ogilvie, who visited 
her : — " I am starting on my eighty-first year to-day, and it 
may be my last. This is a terrible sorrow. He was the 
best son a mother ever had — so good, kind, generous, and 
brave. If he had to die, why did not God take him without 
all the terrible suffering he endured 1 I ought to submit, 
but I cannot ! He had, I know, fulfilled the full measure 
of his ambition. He had reached the highest place in the 
regard of his countrymen. That ought to break the fall to 
me, but it doesn't seem to. I want my boy, and it seems 
so hard that he should die away from us. It is wonderful 
how I live upon thoughts of him. I am glad you should 
see the old home; but he and his brother built a fence 
house for me there. He loved every field about the place. 
He had his father's remains taken up from the grave in the 
wheat-field, and buried in the grave of the Disciples' church. 
I cannot last long, and the other world will be brighter for 
his presence." 

So the bereaved parent of the President chatted on to 
sympathetic ears, scarcely realising all that the trouble 
meant, and yet feeling that the very light of her life hud 



288 NEW WORLD HEROES. 

gone out. No one could look at her without shedding 
tears. It seemed hard indeed, that after all her work for 
him and her joy in him, he should die by the hand of the 
base assassin. 

The news of President Garfield's death awoke in England 
feelings of the deepest regret. 

The next morning many of the newspapers were in black, 
and people knew, even before they read the printed words, 
that the world had lost a hero. Black crape was hung 
from many of the windows in London ; Fleet Street, the 
Strand, and Cheapside especially showing in this way the 
sympathy of the Londoners with America. In all the large 
provincial towns the feeling was the same, especially in 
Manchester. 

It was at once decided to hold memorial services in many 
of the churches and chapels ; and in all the homes of England 
there was mourning. All corporate bodies voted messages of 
sympathy and condolence to Mrs. Garfield and the United 
States. The lessons of the patient, magnanimous life which 
had just closed seemed at once to be read by all, and to be 
understood and taken to heart. The highest people in our 
land took an early opportunity of testifying to their ad- 
miration for the deceased man, and their sorrow at his 
death. 

Alfred Tennyson wrote to Mr. Lowell from Haslemere : — 
" We learned yesterday that the President was gone. We 
had watched with much admiration his fortitude, and not 
without hope, the fluctuations of his health these many 
days. Now we almost seem to have lost a personal friend. 
He was a good man, and a noble one. Accept from me, 
and my wife and family, assurances of heartfelt sympathy 
for Mrs. Garfield, for yourself, and for your country." 

Mr. Tennyson, prompt as he was in his expressions of 
kindness, was not before others. The English people, from 
the highest to the lowest, united in the most sincere regrets 



A FIGHT FOE LIFE. 



280 



and good wishes. The Queen, by every means in her power, 
manifested her intense sympathy. The English Court 
went into mourning, a very unusual mark of respect ; and 
Her Majesty — filled with tender love towards the woman 
who had now to comprehend, as she had long done, the 
desolateness of widowhood — touched all American hearts as 
well as the most sorrowful one among them, by sending the 
following message, dated from Balmoral :— " Words cannot 
express the deep sympathy I feel with you. May God 
support and comfort you as He alone can." 




b 19 



CHAPTER XV. 



THE FUNERAL. 

1 • His will be done 
Who seeth not as man, whose way 
Is not as ours ! 'Tis well with thee ! 
Nor anxious doubt nor dark dismay 
Disquieted thy closing day ; 
But evermore thy soul could say, 

My Father careth still for me." 




VER the cottage at Elberon a deep gloom hung ; 

but General Garfield had belonged to the nation ; 

and now his widow and children must not 
indulge their grief in solitude. The lawn in front of the 
cottage was crowded with people ; and as soon as they 
might they poured into the house to look upon the face 
of the man whom they all mourned. More than three 
thousand persons passed through and gazed upon the 
deceased. The coffin was a plain one ; and the inscription 
upon it said as little as it could. 

Born November 19th, 1831, 
Died President of the United States, 
September 19th, 1881." 



THE FUNERAL. 291 

It was necessary to lose no time in removing the body 
from Long Branch to Washington, and Mrs. Garfield 
requested the Rev. Mr. Young to conduct a religious 
service in the cottage, the first of the many memorial 
services which were held. At its close the funeral pro- 
cession set out on the journey to Washington. The same 
train that had brought the General to Long Branch took 
him back. Mrs. Garfield, closely veiled, supported by her 
children, Molly and Harry, and other friends, accompanied 
the body. In the next car the members of the Cabinet and 
their wives travelled. 

Wherever the train went, manifestations of sorrow and 
sympathy were abundant. Crowds were everywhere. At 
Princetown the students from the college strewed the way 
with flowers. At Philadelphia there was an immense 
crowd ; and not only curiosity and excitement were shown, 
but traces of deep feeling were upon the faces of the 
multitude. 

Arrived at Washington, the sad procession was re-formed ; 
and every possible token of respect was paid. The United 
States Marine Band played the beautiful anthem, " Nearer, 
my God, to Thee," and the people turned it into a 
prayer. The body was placed on a catafalque in the 
Rotunda of the Capitol, and during the lying in-state 
was visited by hundreds of thousands. The floral con- 
tributions excelled anything that had previously been 
seen. There were globes of immortelles, pillars of roses, 
and exquisite designs of all kinds. One handsome 
wreath had a card attached to it, bearing the following 
inscription : — 

«QXxx&&n *$ict0vxa> 

To the Memory of the late President Garfield. 

An expression of her sorrow and sympathy with Mrs. Garfield and 

the American Nation. September 22, 1881." 



292 NEW WORLD HEROES. 

During the time of the lying-in-state, Mrs. Garfield and 
Harry and Molly went to take a last farewell. The doors 
were closed and the public excluded. A few personal 
friends of the General went in, and then Mrs. Garfield 
entered alone. " Beyond that threshold, rank, nor power, 
nor curiosity, nor imagination might intrude. The lid of 
the casket had been removed, and for twenty minutes the 
widow remained by all that was earthly of her honoured 
dead. She came out closely veiled, and bearing a few 
flowers taken from the offerings of affection which had 
been placed upon the casket. She silently took the arm 
of General Swain and departed." 

She could not bear to remain in the White House, and 
went away with her children to Mentor. There all the 
wreaths were sent at her request ; all except the palm- 
leaves and the wreath of the Queen's, which was to go 
wherever the dead body went. There also remained by its 
side a scroll with the words — 

" Life's race well run, 
Life's work well done, 
Life's crown well won, 

Now comes rest. " 

General Garfield was buried at Cleveland. Before the 
procession set out from Washington a religious service was 
held at the Rotunda. Prayers were offered by Dr. Errett 
and the Rev. J. G. Buthin, and Dr. Power pronounced a 
eulogy. 

In the eulogy by Nathaniel P. Banks, given in the 
" Boston Memorial," occur these words in reference to the 
funeral obsequies celebrated in the Rotunda of the Capitol 
at Washington : — 

11 Simple, brief, and impressive ceremonies heightened the 
deep and general interest of the occasion. The funeral dis- 
course was of a purely reiigious character, with scarcely 



THE FUNERAL. 293 

more than a brief allusion to the career of the deceased 
President, and no mention, I think, of his name. But 
these omissions intensified the general interest in the life 
of the President. ' I do believe,' the preacher said, ' that 
the true strength and beauty of this man's character will 
be found in his discipleship of Christ ! ' It is not my 
province to speak of the spiritual nature of this connection, 
but in another relation I believe it is true. 

" The Church of the Disciples, to which he belonged, is one 
of the most primitive of Christian communions, excluding 
every thought of distrust, competition, or advantage. It 
gave him a position and mission unique and generic, like 
and unlike that of other men. While he rarely or never 
referred to it himself, and might have wished at times, per- 
haps, to forget it, he was strengthened and protected by it. 
It was buckler and spear to him. It brought him into an 
immediate communion — a relation made sacred by a 
common faith, barren of engagements and responsibilities — 
with multitudes of other organisations and congregations, 
adherents and opponents, able and willing to assist and 
strengthen him, present or absent, at home or abroad, who 
dismissed aspersions on his conduct and character as 
accusations of Pharisees against a son of the true faith, and 
gave him at all times a friendly greeting and welcome, 
whenever and wherever he felt inspired to give the world 
his thought and word. All great movements and revo- 
lutions of men and nations are born of this spirit and 
power." 

The railway along which the dead and the mourners 
were carried was lined with people, and strewn with 
flowers. Crape banners and mourning flags of every 
description were abundant ; many of them bearing the 
words — " We mourn our dead President." At Cleveland 
immense crowds were waiting, and watched the mournful 
pageant with interest. A writer thus describes it : — 



294 NEW WORLD HEROES. 

" While the distinguished persons were taking their seats 
in the funeral pavilion, carriages were seen coming into the 
public square. The first was drawn by beautiful white 
horses. The door was opened, and a young man with a 
mournful face alighted, and assisted to the ground a lady 
clad in deep mourning. These were the President's widow, 
and their son Harry. The other children of the President 
were also there; but in contrast with their youthful 
appearance there was another figure, bent with age, leaning 
on the arms of two of the President's friends, who slowly 
ascended the inclined plane, and took a seat near the coffin. 
This was the President's mother, who not many months 
before saw him assume his high position in Washington ; 
and whom, in sight of everybody, he tenderly kissed on that 
never-to-be-forgotten day." 

After an address by Dr. Errett, and prayers by the Rev. 
Ross Houghton and Dr. Pomeroy, the procession went to 
Lake View Cemetery. Flowers had been sent from 
legations and societies in all parts of the land. Indeed, 
when they arrived at the cemetery, so great were the contri- 
butions, that the ground was literally covered with flowers. 

At the side of the grave Mrs. Garfield looked for a 
moment from the carriage-window, and then covered her 
face with her hands and wept. The " little white-haired 
mother " looked fixedly into the vault, and then drew down 
her veil that no one might see her grief. She felt that 
the one last strong tie that bound her to the earth had now 
been broken. 

The service was very simple and very impressive. The 
following hymn, which had been a favourite one with the 
General, was sung at the grave — 

" Ho ! reapers of life's harvest, 
Why stand with rusted blade, 
Until the night draws round theo, 
And day begins to fade ? 



THE FUNERAL. 295 

Why stand ye idle, waiting 
For reapers more to come % 

The golden morn is passing- 
Why sit ye idle, dumb ? 

Thrust in your sharpened sickle ; 

And gather in the grain ; 
The night is fast approaching., 

And soon will come again. 
The master calls for reapers, 

And shall he call in vain ? 
Shall sheaves be there ungathered- 

And waste upon the plain ? 



In morning's ruddy glow, 
Nor wait until the dial 

Points to the noon below ; 
And come with the strong sinew. 

Nor faint in heat or cold, 
And pause not till the evening 

Draws round its wealth of gold, 

Mount up the heights of wisdom. 

And crush each error low ; 
Keep back no words of knowledge 

That human hearts should know. 
Be faithful to thy mission 

In service of thy Lord, 
And then a golden chaplet 

Shall be thy just reward.*' 

The stirring words of this hymn must have made many 
think of Garfield's own words when Lincoln was smitten 
down. Another worker had fallen, but God's work must 
be carried on all the same ; and those who loved the man 
whom they mourned knew that for his sake, if from nc 
other motive, they must go back to their allotted tasks, 
determined to toil more earnestly than before. 

The band solemnly played, " Nearer, my God, to thee ; " 



206 NEW WOULD HEROES. 

and the Rev. H. Jones, who had been in the war with 
Garfield, spoke a few earnest words. They were real 
friends who stood around that grave; and, when it was 
over, and they went away to their homes, they felt that life 
would henceforth be more sad than ever before. 

The day of the funeral was a day of mourning through- 
out the United States of America ; and in England all 
classes united to keep it as a time of solemn thought. 
Services were held in many of the churches and chapels 
at the very time that the funeral was taking place at 
Cleveland. Among the rest was one in St. Martin-in-the- 
Eields, near Charing Cross, London, when the Archbishop 
of Canterbury delivered the following address : — 

"My Christian Friends — It is a great privilege and a 
great responsibility to be called upon to address a few 
words to you at the close of this mournful day — a mourn- 
ful day even in this capital, at so great a distance from the 
scene which we have all called to mind. Had the solemn 
scene taken place in some neighbouring cemetery, I doubt 
whether its effects would be more deeply experienced than 
now, when we know that it has been enacted over thousands 
of miles of ocean, and a vast tract of a distant continent. 
Why is it that the heart of this English nation, as well as 
that of the great American nation, has been so moved at 
the present time? It cannot be the mere contagion of a 
nation's grief, august and heartrending as is the spectacle 
of all the sorrow over a great man fallen. That can scarcely 
have travelled over sea and land to move our feelings as 
at this time. Neither can it be merely that we sorrow for 
a great career prematurely cut short. We have seen others 
stopped in their progress by the rude hand of death as un- 
expectedly — bright hopes fading away ; and yet there has 
not been this general feeling of mourning. Neither can it 
have been only that during those weary weeks of suffering, 
borne with such Christian fortitude, the details of the sick 



Illill : ;SillBIll 



m 



aW; »'Y!V.' 






<<W:\ i 







TEE FUNERAL. 297 

chamber were Drought to us day by day, and we learned to 
admire the man who bore his fate so manfully, and to love 
her who, with all a woman's care, was tending through those 
eleven weeks the hopeless invalid. Neither can it be that 
there mingles with our thoughts any anxiety as to a change 
of policy in the great nation whose loss we mourn. Power 
is handed from man to man by death in all the great nations 
of the world, and we do not feel any great or deep anxiety ; 
and, least of all, when we contemplate that great nation 
which is now mourning, do we fear lest its steady, onward 
course should be restrained or altered by the power of any 
single human will. Why is it we have been so strangely 
moved? First, on that July morning, when the news 
flashed across the Atlantic that the loved President of a 
great people had been smitten by a mysterious blow, I 
hesitate not to say that there was a feeling of consternation, 
not merely of dismay, throughout this community. We had 
read in old histories of the attempts on the life of our own 
Queen Elizabeth, and of the murders of Henri Quatre and 
of William of Orange, and we congratulated ourselves that 
we were not as the men who lived in those days. And 
when assassination revived in modern history, we turned 
to the barbarous monarchies of the East. We knew how 
thrones were vacated there, and we supposed that it was 
but some lingering barbarism in the great monarchies of 
Europe if we heard of such attempts on monarchs' lives, 
and we knew that this lin^erincj barbarism concealed itself 
under an affectation of indignation against restraints on 
public liberty. But here, in the very centre of the temple of 
freedom, where there was no ground for any complaint, we 
heard of this most atrocious deed ; and we thought within 
ourselves at first, in our alarm, that there must be in the 
world some vile combination against the progress of civil- 
isation working in the dark. 

"The death of Lincoln had been, at the worst, but the wild 



29S NEW WORLD HEROES. 

effect of bitterness of a scarce suppressed civil war ; but now 
we know not what might be the end if the elected chief 
of freemen, as much as the inheritor of a barbarous 
throne, were exposed to the deadly knife of the assassin 
without the slightest cause. A short time dispelled those 
fears. We learnt that the deed had its origin in vulgar 
avarice or ambition, thwarted by the determination of an 
upright chief; and then, looking calmly at the whole, our 
first dismay was allayed and passed away. But then we 
had time to think what manner of man was this over whom 
so great a nation was mourning from day to day, and 
watching the flickering life as he lay upon his deathbed. 
And we are told particulars which we knew not before, and 
what manner of man he was. We learnt that this chosen 
chief of fifty millions of freemen was, as it seemed, in mind 
as in body, a very model of what such a man should be. We 
learnt his early history, and all of us have traced it daily in 
the accounts of him which have appeared among ourselves. 
We learnt how, born of a race which left our own land in 
the Mayflower, to escape from the evils which a mistaken 
Government then brought upon freed men, he inherited the 
spirit of his fathers. We learnt of his early days, and that 
far-off and solitary farm-house in the forest ; how he 
laboured with his hands ; how the boy, full of the spirit of 
adventure, was seized with a desire for a seafaring life; 
how, when he first tasted it for a day, his pure soul wa3 
revolted by the blasphemy and drunkenness which disgraced 
that noble calling ; how he then sought to maintain himself 
by day labour, as driving horses along the side of a canal ; 
and how, when this short period passed, and sickness sent 
him home, he was tended by the august mother, who still 
survives to receive the thanks of her countrymen, for 
having so well, by her thrift and self-denial, earned a good 
education for her boy. 

" All this was calculated to enlist our sympathy, and then 



THE FUNERAL. 299 

we were taught to trace a career, such as England knows 
nothing of, and to wonder at the mode in which great men 
are formed in a country, so like and yet so dissimilar from 
our own — the scholar ripening into the master ; the master 
becoming a student in the college, a professor, a contro- 
versialist, a preacher; and then, after all this strange 
preparation, when the state of the country seemed to call 
for it, the citizen developing himself into the colonel of a 
powerful regiment, who made himself acquainted with the 
practice as well as with the theory of tactics in a few weeks ; 
and then the able general, passing into that office from the 
head of the staff, and achieving victories which seemed to 
promise him the most brilliant career. Then — all this 
interrupted at the call of duty — the voice of Lincoln 
summoning him to take his part in the government of the 
country, giving up his military career, devoting himself to 
politics, and in the political life showing a bright example 
of an honest, straightforward, and vigorous lover of his 
country. All this, I must say, to most of us was quite 
new. It opened up a picture of manhood such as in this 
country we were little acquainted with, and no wonder that 
our affections were drawn forth, ond we felt that it was no 
common man that the civilised world had lost. But then 
comes the nobler and the better lesson. We know not the 
secrets of the soul ; we know not the exact impressions of 
religion which had been made upon his heart ; but we have 
two signs, and we shall do well to meditate upon them — 
first, how he stood forth bravely against many difficulties to 
defend high character and uprightness in their dealings with 
the public creditor ; how he would yield to no suggestion to 
trifls with what seemed to him the plain dictates of political 
honesty and morality ; and, secondly, that when all experi- 
ences for some time back had been in favour of making the 
election to the office of • President a party triumph, he 
determined, at whatever cost, not to give up to party what 



300 NEW WORLD HEROES. 

he owed to his country and its highest welfare — a resolution 
which, as far as we know, cost him his life. These lessons 
surely speak of a Christianity deeper than the lips, or than 
excited feelings. They speak of a conduct regulated through 
life according to Christian principles, and point an example 
to all public men. No wonder, then, that we recognised 
such a great loss as that which London is mourning 
to-day. 

"And now, my brethren from the other side of the 
Atlantic, and all of us, what lessons have we to learn 
from this mourning, which has brought us all together so 
remarkably this day 1 Families disunited are often said to 
be brought together by some common sorrow. Thank God, 
we are not disunited, but we may be brought better to 
understand and love each other by our union in this 
common sorrow. There are many bonds to keep us 
together. The same blood, the same tongue, the same 
literature — each of us enjoying the privilege which the 
literature of the one race gives to the other — science in 
each country lending its aid to develop the industry, the 
prosperity, and the happiness of both. We have learned 
to appreciate each other. We know, here in England, 
my American friends, your boundless hospitality, shown to 
ourselves or our sons who have visited you, and who have 
received from you a welcome as of relations near in blood. 
But our union, above all, must be based upon our common 
Christianity. We know that the Lord God Almighty has 
committed to us a trust — beyond the trust He has given to 
any other nation of the world — to carry through the 
boundaries of the human race a civilisation founded upon 
Christianity. 

" Let us learn that this union is the only true union to 
keep us really together in the dark ages that may be in 
store for the human race ; that individual, family, social, or 
political life must all have its cement in the gospel of Jesus 



TEE FUNERAL. 



301 



Christ. Some may think that from this country theie goes 
forth at times an uncertain sound as to religion, and that 
we have received uncertain sounds from over the Atlantic ; 
but the heart of both nations, thank God, is still truly 
Christian, and in the ages that are before us, may the Lord 
teach us both more distinctly to recognise the priceless 
value of that common guide, which alone can safely lead 
both nations — the Gospel of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus 
Christ." 





CHAPTER XVI, 



IN MEMORY OF GARFIELD. 



"Forth from the dust we spring, and run 
About the green earth's patient breast 
Our little day. At set of sun 
Into ber bosom creep and rest." 

— Scribner's Monthly. 

HE number of Memorial Services held in con- 
nection with the death of General Garfield was 
truly remarkable. In England, as in America, 



his name was heard in almost all pulpits on the Sundays 



following the death and the funeral. In Westminster 
Abbey the He v. Cancn Duckworth preached to a crowded 
congregation from the words, " spare me, that I may 
recover my strength before I go hence, and be no more 




The sermon concluded thus : — " And can we forget to- 
day that convalescence — for such it seemed to be — on which 
millions of hearts in the New World and in the Old have so 
long been set with a yearning devotion 1 From how many 
lips the fervent prayer has gone up, day by day, to Him in 
whose hands are the issues of life and death, "O spare 



IX MEMORY OF GARFIELD. 303 

him, that he may recover his strength before he goes hence 
and is no more seen. Morning and evening in this vener- 
able abbey, round which, as almost the home of the race and 
the shrine of its grandest memories, the affections of the 
Western Republic twine as lovingly as our own, and in 
which, within recent days, a resting-place has been found for 
two of its noblest citizens, we have offered our public 
petitions for the life so dear to our great kindred, and so 
precious to the world. Never, perhaps, has the heart of 
England thrilled with deeper sympathy. Prom the hour 
when the dastardly shot was fired, one interest has been 
paramount throughout the length and breadth of the land — 
one anxiety has displaced every other. So eagerly had we 
awaited every telegram, so nervously had we scanned every 
message of hope or fear, that, when the struggle ended, and 
all was over, the news fell upon every English household, 
from that of the monarch to that of her humblest subject, 
with the shock of a personal bereavement. We felt as if 
one were taken from us whom we had long known and 
loved. And, indeed, in those days of deadly peril we did 
come to know him. Through the long agony, so gallantly 
borne, we watched him , we overheard many a brave and 
tender word ; and we think we know what his country 
delighted to honour and trembled to lose. We recognised 
in him one of those rare natures which could not be hid, 
for God had gifted it with the prescriptive right to rule ; he 
had made him to be a true shepherd and king of men. I 
have seen a description of his martyred predecessor, 
Abraham Lincoln, from the pen of his eloquent fellow- 
countryman, Phillips Brooks, and it seems to apply with 
singular fitness to James Garfield. 'The character by 
which men knew him was that character which is the 
most distinctive possession of the best American nature; 
that almost indescribable quality which we call, in general, 
clearness or truth, and which appears in the physical 



304 NEW WORLD HEROES. 

structure as health, in the moral constitution as honesty, 
in the mental structure as sagacity, in the region of active 
life as practicalness.' Striking, indeed, is the resemblance 
between these two great men — both emerging from the utmost 
obscurity and poverty by sheer force of character, by the 
sure, upward gravity of that genius which consists in 
thoroughness, moral and intellectual, both winning their 
way by the most legitimate efforts to the highest pinnacle 
of power. It would seem as if our poet-laureate had 
prophetically described both when he traces the rise 

' Of some divinely-gifted man 
"Whose life in low estate began, 
And on a simple village green ; 
Who breaks his birth's invidious bar, 
And grasps the skirts of happy chance, 
And breasts the blow of circumstance, 
And grapples with his evil star : 
Who makes by force his merit known. 
And lives to clutch the golden keys, 
To mould a mighty State's decrees, 
And shape the whisper of the throno ; 
And, moving up from high to higher, 
Becomes, on fortune's crowning slope, 
The pillow of a people's hope, 
The centre of a world's desire.' 

" Brethren, is our faith staggered by the cruel extinction 
of lives like these at their very meridian of usefulness 1 
What is the meaning of these terrible endings which 
horrify the world, and render high places, though ever so 
nobly filled, still so perilous a trust, that it may well un- 
nerve the bravest heart 1 How comes it to pass that even 
the life which is richest in promise, which is fullest of 
self-sacrifice, and fullest of blessing, invites outrage no less 
than the vilest 1 How is it the career on which a nation's 
hopes are staked can be wrecked in a moment by the 
infernal machine of a crack-brained fanatic or the bullet of 



IN MEMORY OF GARFIELD. 305 

a disappointed place-hunter 1 ? We ask ourselves why these 
things are suffered to be. Does He who rules in the affairs 
of men see no pre-eminence in the man He endows so 
splendidly 1 Does no special Providence guard those who 
do their work in His name and for His glory 1 It cannot 
be that they are less to Him than to us. He cannot cast 
His divinest gifts ' as rubbish to the void ; ' He is ever, 
be sure of it, evolving good from seeming ill. As we look 
back, do we suppose that even long years of consummate 
rule could have achieved more for his country than was 
brought about by the tragical end of Abraham Lincoln? 
We see how that end put the seal on the great work of his 
life; we see that it was the death-blow of slavery, the 
eternal consecration of freedom throughout the western 
world. One day he stood on the field of Gettysburg, 
before the graves of the thousands who had willingly 
offered themselves, and he spoke words in which we read 
the lesson God taught the world by his own removal. 
'We cannot dedicate,' he said, 'we cannot consecrate, 
we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men who 
struggled here have consecrated it far beyond our power to 
add or detract. The world will little note nor long remem- 
ber what we say here, but it can never forget what they 
did here. It is for us, the living, rather to be dedicated to 
the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus 
far so nobly advanced : it is rather for us to be here 
dedicated to the great task before us, that from these 
honoured dead we take increased devotion to that cause 
for which they gave the last full measure of devotion, 
that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have 
died in vain, that this nation, under God, shall have a new 
birth of freedom, and that the government of the people 
by the people, and for the people, shall not perish from the 
earth.' But who among us here doubts that the cause for 
which the speaker of these burning words perished is 
b 20 



306 NEW WORLD HEROES. 

reinforced now and re-consecrated by a new sacrifice 1 The 
American people are the richer this day, in all that can 
dignify national life, for Garfield's heroic dying. Had our 
prayers for hitn been granted, had the shattered frame 
revived, had the most sanguine hopes raised by his gifts 
and virtues been realised, it is hard to believe that he 
could have impressed his greatness more effectually, or 
clone more lasting service to the nation which, with so 
wide a discernment, placed him at its head. Even now 
we see the sure beginning of good, which we trust will 
never pass away. While he has hovered between two 
worlds, all animosities have been hushed, and all divi- 
sions forgotten. The heart of the people has been bowed 
by that impending sorrow as the heart of one man. 
Is it no gain, I would ask, that all the world over, the good 
and law-abiding have been leagued in a closer bond by the 
discovery that it is not against this form of polity or against 
that, but against all law, and order, and authority, however 
constituted, that the anarchical forces of our modern society 
are banded together? Is it no gain that we Englishmen 
have been drawn, as we have never been drawn before, to 
our mourning kinsmen, and have made their trial our own 1 
Is it no consolation in this dark hour that the two great 
peoples whom God has placed in the fore-front of this world's 
civilisation are knit together by one more hallowed memory, 
and by an interchange of sympathy never to be forgotten 1 
And so in all humility we resign ourselves, and we commit 
our bereaved brethren to Him who has surely heard and 
answered, though He has not granted, our prayer. c Shall I 
live in history 1 ?' asked that dying patriot, who will be laid 
at rest to-morrow. 'Yes,' was the reply, 'and in the 
hearts of men.' No sweeter promise ever fell upon a ruler's 
dying ears. He has gone hence, and will be no more seen, 
but his works follow him. To him may be applied the 
noble lines of the poet-statesman from his own land — 



AY MEMORY OF GARFIELD. 307 

4 Therefore I cannot think thee wholly gone— 
The better part of thee is with us still. 
Thy soul its hamper clay aside hath thrown, 
And only freer wrestles with the ill. 
Thou livest in the life of all good things. 
What word thou spak'st for freedom shall not die. 
Thou sleepest not ; for now thy love hath wings 
To soar where hence thy hope could hardly fly. 
And often from that other world on this 
Some glimpses from great souls gone before may shine 
To shed on struggling hearts a clearer bliss, 
And clothe the right with lustre more divine.' " 

If any one had told General Garfield, at the time of hia 
visit to London, as he sauntered through the Abbey, that a 
sermon would one day be preached there about him, how 
incredulous he would have been. 

The Rev. Baldwin Brown said, at the close of his address 

delivered in Brixton Independent Ohurch : — " It was his 

long and heroic death-struggle, fighting death inch by inch, 

with a calmness, a courage, and a lofty sense of duty which 

have never been surpassed — and if, as now appears, he was 

himself persuaded that there was no hope, the heroism is 

the more conspicuous — it was this which kept on so full 

and tender a strain the sympathy of the whole civilised 

world. In England the feeling was both universal and 

unprecedented; and we Englishmen are both glad and 

proud that such simple, tender, beautiful, and Christian 

expression has been given to the feeling of the nation by 

the messages of the Queen. The scene of his removal from 

Washington to the sea is one of the most pathetic and 

impressive in history. While two mighty emperors, whose 

simple fiat could put a million of men into the field in 

a week, were meeting in a yacht on the ocean, because 

there was no city in their broad dominions where they 

could be sure of not being blown up, this man was carried 

through the great country which he ruled amid a breathless 



308 NEW WORLD HEROES. 

hush of emotion. All the nobleness and all the tenderness 
of the American nature came out as his maimed and 
wasted form was borne by. All the traffic of the day 
was suspended, and the hum of its business was hushed 
to silence, lest a rude sound should break upon his ear, and 
give a new chance to death. And when at length the long 
sad struggle was ended, and he passed to that rest for 
which, under all his resolute effort, we now know that he 
had pined so long, there was a dimness in the eye, and 
a choking in the throat, of millions in America and England, 
as though a dear friend had been called away. 

" The passage of his maimed and emaciated remains to 
Washington exceeded, if possible, in pathetic impressive- 
ness, his journey to the sea. All that was distinguished 
in position, in reputation, in influence, in the Union was 
gathered to attend him. Thousands of citizens silently 
assembled in all the towns by which the body passed. The 
lads at Princetown strewed the railway thick with flowers. 
Along the fields the labourers lined the track. Every head 
was bowed, the women weeping, their tears raining on the 
sods, a great hush of silence over the land, broken only 
by the tolling of the funeral bells ; cities, towns, villages, 
draped in mourning, the poor everywhere foremost in the 
expression of their grief ; North and South vieing with each 
other in rendering honour to his memory. At Washington 
130,000 passed by the bier with hushed and reverent step, 
to gaze for the last time on his noble but wasted features ; 
and to-morrow, we may be well assured, amidst the most 
impressive funeral spectacle which the world has witnessed 
since our own great Duke was borne to his buiial, the 
shattered relics of this kingly man will pass to their rest. 
Earth still holds more of him than the ashes which the 
tomb has buried from our sight. His spirit lives on, and 
will animate his successors. The cause for which his life 
was given will henceforth be consecrated by the memory of 



m MEMORY OF GARFIELD. 30y 

his terrible sufferings, and the service which living he 
would have rendered to his country, he will render more 
nobly by his death." 

The Rev. W. M. Statham thus concluded his sermon at 
Hare Court Chapel, Canonbury : — " Our closing prayer is 
that Cod may guide his successor \ that, with the prayers 
of a nation for his consecration, and the tears of a nation for 
his baptism, the President of to-day may take up the 
weapons of righteousness and truth, which have been held 
by two wounded, and grasped by two dying Presidents. 

"They will not have died in vain if the blood of the 
President martyrs is the seed of a regenerated State. God 
bless America ! The Court has departed from its old regime, 
and gone into mourning for one who is not of royal lineage. 
And yet he is ! For every true, every pure, every noble, 
and every faithful man is a king's son ; his coronation is on 
high. A preacher himself, President Garfield lived what he 
preached, and his last pulpit was the pulpit the age needs 
most — viz., the market-place, the exchange, and the parlia- 
ment of the world. 

" The cathedral he preached in was older than Jerusalem's 
Temple or the shrines of the Ptolemies, or the cathedrals of 
Rome and England ; it was beneath the great dome that 
covers all the world that the President preached, 'Act the 
citizen as it becometh the Gospel of Christ.' 

" And now he sleeps his last sleep, the pall over the 
countenance. The Egypt of a new civilisation goes down 
to bury him, a voice deeper than the moan of ocean sweeps 
o'er the Atlantic, and two nations clasp inseparable hands 
of grief and love around a martyr's tomb." 

In America, preachers and poets united in honouring the 
memory of Garfield, by showing forth his noble life and 
many virtues. 

The following beautiful poem was written at the time 
by Oliver Wendell Holmes : — 



310 NEW WORLD HEROES. 



' Fallen with Autumn's fallen leaf, 

Ere yet his Summer's noon was past, 

Our friend, our guide, our trusted chief— 

What words can match a woe so vast 1 

And whose the chartered claim to speak 
The sacred grief where all have part ; 

When sorrow saddens every cheek, 
And broods in every aching heart ? 

Yet nature prompts the burning phrase 
That thrills the hushed and shrouded hall 

The loud lament, the sorrowing praise, 
The silent tear that love lets fall. 

In loftiest verse, in lowliest rhyme, 

Shall strive unblamed the minstrel choir % 

The singers of the new-born time, 
And trembling age with outworn lyre. 

No room for pride, no place for blame — 
We fling our blossoms on the grave ; 

Pale, scentless, faded, all we claim — 
This only — what we had we gave. 

Ah, could the grief of all who mourn 
Blend in one voice its bitter cry ; 

The wail, to heaven's high arches bornc s 
Would echo through the caverned sky. 

II. 

Oh, happiest land whose peaceful choice 
Fills with a breath its empty throne ! 

God, speaking through thy people's voice, 
Has made that voice for once His own. 

No angry passion shakes the State, 
Whose weary servant seeks for rest ; 

And who could fear that scowling hate 
Would strike at that unguarded breast f 






IN MMMOM Y OF GA R FIELD. 3 1 1 

He stands, unconscious of his doom, 

In manly strength, erect, serene — 
Around him summer spreads her bloom ; 

He falls — what horror clothes the scene ! 

How swift the sudden flash of woe, 

Where all was bright as childhood's dream J 

As if from heaven's ethereal bow 
Had leapt the lightning's arrowy gleam. 

Blot the foul deed from history's page, 

Let not the all-betraying sun 
Blush for the day that stains an age, 

When murder's blackest wreath was won, 

III. 

Pale on his couch the sufferer lies, 

The weary battle-ground of pain ; 
Love tends his pillow, science tries 

Her every art, alas ! in vain. 

The strife endures, how long ? how long ? 

Life, death, seem balanced in the scale, 
While round his bed a viewless throug 

Awaits each morrow's changing tale. 

In realms the desert ocean parts, 

What myriads watch with tear-filled eyes ? 

His pulse-beats echoing in their hearts, 
His breathings counted in their sighs ! 

Slowly the stores of life are spent, 

Yet hope still battles with despair ; 
Will Heaven not yield when knees are bent ■ 

Answer, oh, Thou that hearest prayer ! 

But silent is the brazen sky — 

Or sweeps the meteor's threat'ning train- 
Unswerving Nature's mute reply, 
Bound in her adamantine chain. 

JTot ours the verdict to decide 

Whom death shall claim or skill shall savs ; 
The hero's life though Heaven denied, 

It gave our land a martyr's grave. 



312 NEW WORLD HEROES. 

Nor count the teachings vainly sent, 

How human hearts their griefs may share 

The lesson, woman's love has lent — 

What hope may do, what faith can bear ! 

Farewell ! the leaf-strewn earth enfolds 
Our stay, our pride, our hopes, our fears, 

And Autumn's golden sun beholds 
A nation bowed, a world in tears." 



The following is from a poem by James Russell Lowell- 

" I cannot think he wished so soon to die, 
With all his senses full of eager heat, 
And rosy years, that stood expectant by, 
To buckle the winged sandals on their feet. 



The ship erect is prone ; for ever stilled 

The winning tongue ; the forehead's high-piled hesp, 

A cairn which every science helped to build, 

Unvalued will its golden secrets keep. 

He knows at last if life or death be best : 

Wherever he be flown ; whatever vest 

The being hath put on, which lately here 

So many-friended was, so full of cheer 

To make men feel the seeker's noble zest. 

We have not lost him all ; he is not gone 

To the dumb herd of them that wholly die ; 

The beauty of his better self lives on 

In minds he touched with fire, in many an eyo 

He trained to truth's exact severity : 

He was a teacher : why be grieved for him 

Whose loving word still stimulates the air ? 

In endless file shall loving scholars come 

The glow of his transmitted touch to share, 

And trace his features with an eye less dim 

Than ours, whose sense familiar wont makes dumb." 

Among the Memorial Services held was one in the 
Brooklyn Tabernacle. Thousands of persons were unable 
Dr. Talmage took his text from Judges xvl 



IN MEMORY OF GARFIELD. 313 

30 : " So the dead which he slew at his death were more 
than they which he slew in his life." " It sometimes occurs," 
said Dr. Talmage, " that after an industrious, and useful, and 
eminent life, in the closing hour a man will achieve more 
good than in all the years that preceded. My text has a 
very graphic illustration in the overshadowing event of this 
hour. President Garfield, during his active life, was the 
enemy of sin, the enemy of sectionalism, the enemy of 
everything small-hearted and depraved and impure, and he 
gave many a crushing blow against these moral and political 
Philistines ; but in his dying hours he made the grandest 
achievement. The eleven weeks of his dying were mightier 
than the half-century of his living. My object this morning 
is for inspiration and comfort, to show that our President's 
expiration has done more good than a prolonged ad minis 
tration possibly could have accomplished. Had he died 
one month before he was shot down by the assassin, he 
would not have had his administration fairly launched. 
Had he died six months from now, by that time his 
advanced policy of reform would have destroyed the 
friendship of many of his followers. Had he died many 
years from now, he would have been out of office and in 
the . decline of life. There was no time in the last fifty 
years when his death-bed could have been so effective, and 
there could have been no time in the fifty years to come 
when his death-bed could have been so overwhelmingly 
impressive. We talk a great deal about the faith of the 
Christian, and the courage of the Christian, and the hop 5 
of the Christian ; but all the sermons preached in the past 
twenty years upon that subject put together would not 
be so impressive as the magnificent demeanour of our 
dying Chief Magistrate. 

"President Garfield's death, more than a prolonged admin 
istration, has consummated good feeling between the North 
and the South. It is not shaking hands over a bloody 



314 NEW WORLD HEROES. 

chasm, according to the rhetoric of campaign documents, 
but it is shaking hands across and over a palpitating heart, 
large enough to take in both sections. He, in his dying 
moment, took the hand of the North and the hand of the 
South, and joined them ; and, with a pathos that can never 
be forgotten, practically said, 'Be brothers.' Ah, my friends, 
he has done in his death what he could not have done 
in all his life. Where are the flags at half-mast to-day % 
At New Orleans and Boston, at Chicago and Charles- 
town. The bulletins of his health were as anxiously 
watched on the south side of Mason and Dixon's line as on 
the north side. Ever and anon we thought we had our 
own difficulties settled, and our old grudges adjusted, but 
the quarrel broke out in some new place. It seems now 
that the requiem of to-day must for ever drown out all 
sectional prejudices. After what we have seen during the 
last eleven weeks, the people of the South must be welcomed 
in all our Northern homes, as we of the North would be 
welcome in all the Southern homes. If, at any future time, 
some one should want to kindle anew the fires of hatred, he 
would find but little fuel, and no sulphureous match. South 
Carolina and Massachusetts, stand up and be married ! Ala- 
bama and New York, stand up and join hands in betrothal ! 
Georgia and Ohio, stand up while I pronounce you one ! 
'And whom God hath joined together, let no man put 
asunder.' No living man could have accomplished this." 

Dr. Talmage went on to say, that President Garfield's 
death accomplished more than his life, in setting forth the 
truth, that when our time comes to go, the most energetic 
and skilful opposition cannot hinder the event ; and then 
demanded, "Who knows but that God may make this 
national trouble the purification of all the people ? " 

" Poor Mrs. Garfield ! I never read anything more pathetic 
in my life than what I saw in the newspapers on Friday, 
when they said she had gone to the White House to gather 






IN MEMORX OF CAR FIELD. 315 

up the private property of the family, to have it taken to her 
home in Ohio. Can you imagine any greater torture than 
for her to go through those rooms in the White House, 
associated with her husband's kindness, and her husband's 
anxieties, and her husband's sufferings 1 You see she had, 
with her womanly arms, fought on his side all the way up 
the steep of life. She had helped him in severe economies 
when they were very poor ; and with her own needle she had 
clothed her household, and with her own hands she had 
made them bread. In the dark days, when slanderous assault- 
frowned upon him, she never forsook him. They had fought 
the battle of life, and gained the day, and they were seated 
side by side at the tip-top to enjoy the victory. Then the 
blow came. What a reversal of fortune ! From what 
midnoon to what midnight ! Some say it will kill her. I 
do not believe it. The same God who has helped her on 
until now will help her through. The mighty God who 
protected James A. Garfield at Chickamauga, and in the 
fiery hell of many battles, will, when these members of the 
broken family circle come together next week, iD their little 
home at Mentor, protect and comfort the wife, the children, 
and the aged mother. I invoke the grace of high heaven 
on those seven broken hearts. 

" Ascend, thou disenthralled spirit ! Ascend, and take thy 
place among those who have come up out of great tribula- 
tion, and had their robes washed and made white in the 
blood of the Lamb ! This Sampson of political power, this 
giant of moral strength, had, in other days, like the man in 
the text, slain the lion of wrathful opposition, and had 
carried off the gates of wrong from their rusty hinges ; but 
the peroration of his life was mightier than all that pre- 
ceded. ' And so the dead which he slew at his death were 
more than they which he slew in his life.' While I try to 
comfort you to-day, there is a lesson that comes sounding 
from the tramp of the senatorial pall-bearers, and rolling 



316 SEW WOULD HEJIOjES. 

out from the roaring wheels of the draped rail-train flying 
westward, and coming up from the open grave that awaits 
our dead President — c Put not your trust in princes, nor in 
the son of man, in whom there is no help. His breath goeth 
forth ; in that very day his thoughts perish. Happy is he 
that hath the God of Jacob for his help.' Fare thee well, 
departed chieftain ! Fare thee well S " 

As Dr. Talmage retired from the verge of the platform, 
Professor Morgan played " The Dead March in Saul," and 
the vast assemblage, every man and woman of which was 
attired in plain black, slowly separated. 




CHAPTER XVII. 



GOOD OUT OF EVIL. 



"Sun of our life, Thy quickening ray 
Sheds on our path the glow of day ; 
Star of our hope, Thy softened light 
Cheers the long watches of our night. 

Grant us Thy truths to make us free, 
And kindling hearts will burn for The©, 

Till all Thy living altars claim 
One holy light, one heavenly flame." 

—Oliver Wendell Holmes. 

HE greatest sympathy was felt with the American 
people in all parts of the world, and there were 
more than a few who believed that the event of 
the President's death would prove exceedingly disastrous to 
the country. But the trouble was not without its ameliora- 
tion. It must always be felt that James Garfield was never 
greater in his life than he was in his death. Had he 
remained in office until the close of the term, and died 
as ordinary men die, all the world would not have come,, in 
thought, to watch by his bedside, or shed tears at his grave. 
It was because he proved himself so noble, so patient, so 
full of magnanimity, that people began to make inquiries 




318 NEW WORLD HEROES. 

respecting him, and to learn that his life as well as his 
death was worthy of study. He had been a teacher 
always ; but the company of his scholars has grown from 
tens to hundreds of thousands since the shot of the 
assassin struck him down. His words had reached the 
ears of a few before ; they live in the hearts of the many 
now. Few, comparatively, had come within the circle of his 
influence, until it seemed that in his weakness and death he 
could have no more influence to exert ; and then a multi 
tude too great to be numbered began to examine their lives 
by his, and to let him lead them toward higher places than 
before they had ever attempted to gain. 

He might have said, as Joseph did to his brethren, " As 
for you, ye thought evil against me ; but God meant it unto 
good, to bring to pass as it is this day, to save much people 
alive." 

On the morning when his death was reported, two young 
men met for a few moments in the streets of New York, 
and the following conversation took place : — 

" Do you sail for England to-day 1 " 

" Yes ; but I hope to be back again in two years. I will 
never live long out of America, for Garfield's sake." 

" Ah, poor Garfield ; he has succumbed at last. I am 
very sorry ; for he was a fine man. You knew him, did 
you not 1 " 

" Yes, I knew him a little. I was a Hiram boy ; and I 
could understand what sort of men Garfield wanted for 
America. I am far enough from his ideal or my own wish ; 
but I mean to be all the better because I have been 
acquainted with James Garfield." 

11 1 have heard others say the same. He had a wonderful 
power for good over young men. We shall see, if we live 
long enough, other Hiram students in the White House ! " 

" It is quite possible ; but whether it be so or not, we 
shall see thousands of men trying to live as grandly as he 



GOOD OUT OF EVIL. 319 

did. And I think we shall see, what I am sure he would 
have been glad to see, some of the abuses of our political 
system come to an end. The blood of Garfield, the martyred 
President, will purchase priceless boons for the country that 
he loved." 

And the two men parted in the faith that it would 
be so. 

Many people feared that Garfield's death would be the 
precursor of a time of lawlessness and difficulty. Such, 
however, was not the case. It seemed that every one 
remembered and acted upon the spirit of Garfield himself 
in regard to the assassination of President Lincoln. The 
nation kept itself quiet by remembering that " God reigns, 
and the Government at Washington still lives." 

As we have already seen, the Americans, in their trouble, 
looked at the religious aspect of the event. There was no 
city that had not its commemorative meetings ; and at each 
of them the thoughts of the people were led to Him who 
overrules all events. Opportunity was given to spend the 
excitement in prayer, as Dr. Lothrop did in Boston, in the 
following words : — 

" Oh, help us to mingle gratitude with our thoughts as 
we gather here this morning, at the call and on behalf of 
our city, to commemorate the late President of these 
United States, summoned by Thee from his high place on 
earth to the footstool of Thy throne in heaven ; and may 
our hearts become more and more grateful for that life, 
that character, that noble example^ that wonderful career. 

" We thank Thee, God, that through Thy providence 
and his own energy and noble purpose, the youth triumphed 
over all the obstacles of a lowly lot, and pinching poverty, 
and limited opportunities ; that he succeeded in the 
acquisition of knowledge, and the development of (alents, 
and the. formation of character, so that he became a scholar 
ard teacher wise, and skilful, and faithful \% all the 



320 NEW WORLD HEROES. 

highest objects of education. We thank Thee that when 
the exigency of the country demanded, the scholar and 
teacher passed into the soldier, and carried into the arena 
of war courage, bravery, skill, a spirit of self-sacrifice, a 
power of endurance, an energy of perseverance, and an 
aptitude and sagacity in military affairs, that showed him 
to be alike competent to command, and worthy to be 
trusted and obeyed. We thank Thee that when he was 
called from the camp to the capitol, from the military to 
the civil service of the country, he exhibited in the halls of 
legislation a breadth and wisdom of statesmanship, a logic 
and eloquence of utterance, a large and comprehensive 
policy, that indicated the force of his character and his 
principles, and secured to him respect, confidence, and trust. 

" We thank Thee, O God, that when through these 
qualities and Thy providence, and the will of the people, 
he was called to the highest honour the nation could confer, 
and to the grandest trust it could confide to his keeping, he 
walked forward to that position with mingled dignity, 
modesty, and meekness ; and that during the brief time he 
was permitted to discharge the duties of his office, he did so 
with a broad, comprehensive, and patriotic integrity of 
purpose. And above all, God, we thank Thee, that 
when suddenly struck down by the hand of wanton folly 
and malignity, and left to languish, week after week, in 
pain and suffering, and alternate hope and apprehension, 
with weeping friends, an anxious nation, and an admiring 
world at his bedside — during all this period no murmur or 
complaint, no bitter thought, no harsh word, nothing un- 
worthy of a noble soul, escaped from his lips, was written 
upon his countenance, or displayed in his manner ; but all 
was calm and serene cheerfulness, submission, and trust in 
Thee, the exhibition of a Christian temper, and the mighty 
power of a Christian faith. 

" And now, O God, that the end has come, amid scenes 



GOOD OUT OF EVIL. 321 

and circumstances that make it glorious to him, but a loss 
and unhappiness to ourselves, we pray that Thou wouldst 
help us to gather up the lessons of his life, and apply them 
to our own characters and consciences. 

" Oh, our Father, while we pray that his name, his fame, 
and his memory, while they abide a rich inheritance and 
holy consolation in the hearts of his family — the wife, and 
mother, and children, whom we commend to the consola- 
tion of Thy Spirit, and the guardianship of Thy love — we 
pray that they may dwell in the hearts of this people, that 
they may lie close to the consciences of this nation, and 
that to us, and to generations that come after us, they may 
ever be a guide, and inspiration, and incentive to love 
what is good, to do what is right, and to strive for all 
things noble and pure. 

" Oh, our Father, sanctify unto this country this appoint- 
ment of Thy providence. Grant that the life, the character, 
the services, and the death of our lamented President may 
exert a holy influence, and may serve to bind the hearts of 
all our people, in all quarters of this great Republic, closer 
together in the bonds of patriotic love and duty, so that our 
union may be cemented in tender ties and sympathies ; so 
that the peace, the prosperity, the glory, the progress of 
this nation may endure through long generations. 

" Bless all the peoples and nations of the world — this 
great race of humanity struggling and striving here upon 
earth. Help each and all to subdue the evil in the 
individual heart, that thus an end may come to injustice 
and wrong. Teach the violent, in all lands and in all 
classes, that the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness 
of God. Oh, our Father, bring all the customs, habits, 
institutions, all the thought and action of mankind, into a 
nearer and closer harmony with the spirit, the character, 
the teachings of Him, who coming to bear witness to Thy 
tmth, and to proclaim Thy love unto the world, bowed His 

b 21 



322 SEW WORLD HEROES. 

head in a grand self-sacrifice on that cross from which He 
has shed pardon and peace, heavenly benedictions, and holy 
influences upon the world. In His name we offer our 
prayers, beseeching Thee to forgive our sins, and to answer 
our prayers, and as His disciples, we ascribe unto Thee 
the glory, the dominion, and the praise for ever. Amen." 

In the same spirit of devotion which breathed in the 
prayer, Boston showed no less than other cities, and per- 
haps not more than they, that the American people were 
steadily determined to carry on their own affairs in manli- 
ness and fidelity. The best among them, if not the whole 
nation, hoped that good might come out of evil, and the 
States be really strengthened and purified by the fires of 
affliction through which they had passed. Life is earnest, 
and there is little time in which to shed tears and indulge 
either in personal or in national grief. And when the time 
of mourning had passed away, the people betook themselves 
to the great healer — Work ! 

The American nation is made noble by its industry, its 
faith, and its hope; for it possesses all three to a remarkable 
degree. The Hev. Robert Collyer of Chicago shows, in a 
striking passage of one of his sermons, how the last two 
qualifications can help a man : — " Here is Cyrus Field con- 
ceiving the idea of binding the Atlantic with a cord — of 
making that awful crystal dome a whispering gallery between 
two worlds — of fulfilling afresh, in these last times, the old 
prophecy, that { as the lightning cometh out of the East, 
and shineth even unto the West, so also shall the coming 
of the Son of Man be.' In carrying out his idea, the man 
has two servants to help him — the faith that it can be done, 
and the hope that he shall do it. With these aids he goes 
to work. Faith steadies him ; hope inspires him. Faith 
works; hope flies. Faith deliberates; hope anticipates. 
Faith lets the cable go, and it breaks, and is lost. * Xay, 
not lost,' cries hope, and fishes it up again. If hope had 



GOOD OUT OF EVIL. 323 

struck work in Cyrus Field, and faith alone had remained, 
we should not this day have had this nexus formed of his 
manhood, by which the world will be born again to a new 
life. But there, through the long day the noble sisters stood 
— faith in Ireland, hope in Newfoundland ; faith in the 
Old World, hope in the New. Faith threw the cord, hope 
caught it. And ' I saw a great angel stand with one foot 
on the sea, and another on the land ; and he sware by Him 
that liveth, that time shall be no more. 7 " 

Neither industry, nor faith, nor hope had been at any 
time stronger in the hearts of the American people than 
when they betook themselves to the new administration. 

There was no difficulty as to the person who was to step 
into the vacant place. The Vice-President was ready ; and, 
in accordance with custom, he took the oath of office on the 
day following the death of General Garfield. Mr. Arthur 
was the fourth Vice-President to succeed to the higher 
office. His address was a short one, and was delivered and 
listened to with emotion : — 

" For the fourth time in the history of the Republic its 
Chief Magistrate has been removed by death. All hearts 
are filled with grief and horror at the hideous crime which 
has darkened our land, and the memory of the murdered 
President, his protracted sufferings, his unyielding fortitude, 
the example and achievements of his life, and the pathos of 
his death, will for ever illumine the pages of our history. 
For the fourth time the officer elected by the people and 
ordained by the Constitution to fill a vacancy so created is 
called to assume the Executive chair. The wisdom of our 
fathers, foreseeing even the most dire possibilities, made 
sure that the Government should never be imperilled 
because of the uncertainty of human life. Men may die, 
but the fabric of our free institutions remains unshaken. 
No higher or more assuring proof could exist of the strength 
and permanence of popular government than the fact that, 



324 FEW WORLD HEROES. 

though the chosen of the people be struck down, his con- 
stitutional successor is peacefully installed without shock or 
strain, except the sorrow which mourns the bereavement. 
All the noble aspirations of my lamented predecessor which 
found expression in his life, the measures devised and 
suggested during his brief administration to correct abuses 
and enforce economy, to advance prosperity and promote 
the general welfare, to ensure domestic security and main- 
tain friendly and honourable relations with the nations of 
the earth, will be garnered in the hearts of the people, and 
it will be my earnest endeavour to profit, and to see that the 
nation shall profit, by his example and experience. Pros- 
perity blesses our country ; our fiscal policy as fixed by law 
is well grounded and generally approved ; no threatening 
issue mars our foreign intercourse, and the wisdom, 
integrity, and thrift of our people may be trusted to con- 
tinue undisturbed the present assured career of peace, 
tranquillity, and welfare. The gloom and anxiety which 
have enshrouded the country must make repose especially 
welcome now. No demand for speedy legislation has been 
heard ; no adequate occasion is apparent for an unusual 
session of Congress. The Constitution defines the functions 
and powers of the Executive as clearly as those of either of 
the other two departments of the Government, and we must 
answer for the just exercise of the discretion it permits and 
the performance of the duties it imposes. Summoned to 
these high duties and responsibilities, and profoundly 
conscious of their magnitude and gravity, I assume the 
trust imposed by the Constitution, relying for aid on 
Divine guidance and the virtue, patriotism, and intelligence 
of the American people." 

President Arthur entered very gravely into the duties of 
the office, and soon proved himself sagacious and wise. He 
did not make any immediate changes in the Cabinet, but 
begged the members of the ministry to retain their offices, 



GOOD OUT OF EVIL. 3125 

which they did until the end of the year, when some of 
them resigned. 

President Arthur had only been a month in the White 
House when a very interesting ceremony took place at 
Yorktown. It was the celebration of the hundredth anni- 
versary of the surrender of Cornwallis to the army of the 
United States and France. The ceremonies were very 
elaborate, and lasted three days. Delegates from France 
and Germany attended to represent those countries; but 
these guests were not present at the whole of the festivities 
on account of a quarrel about precedence which occurred 
between them. The French objected to the position which 
the German flag occupied on the President's boat. The 
French flag was generally placed at the fore, the German 
at the mizen, and the American at the main. This was the 
case in regard to all the boats except that belonging to the 
President ; but as that had only two masts, the German and 
French colours were there displayed together. This, con- 
sidering all that had happened between the two nations, 
gave considerable offence to the French delegates, who 
threatened to withdraw unless the German flag came down. 
Mr. Secretary Blaine had to exercise some diplomatic skill, 
and there was much negotiation before the affair was 
amicably settled and the French were satisfied. 

As the rejoicings in connection with the centenary were 
being brought to a close a very interesting incident occurred, 
which proved that the most kindly feelings exist at the 
present time between the United States and Great Britain, 
feelings which Garfield's death has quickened into new life. 
The British flag was run up to the fore of the Trenton, 
the United States flag-ship, and was saluted by the land and 
naval forces of the United States. All the vessels in tho 
harbour hoisted the British colours, and then Mr. Secretary 
Blaine read the following order of President Arthur : — 



326 NEW WORLD HEROES. 

" In recognition of the friendly relations so long and so 
happily subsisting between Great Britain and the United 
States, in trust and confidence of peace and good-will 
between the two countries for all centuries to come, and 
especially as a mark of profound respect entertained by the 
American people for the illustrious sovereign and gracious 
lady who sits upon the British throne, it is hereby ordered 
that at the close of these ceremonies, commemorative of the 
valour and success of our forefathers in their patriotic 
struggle for independence, the British flag shall be saluted 
by the forces of the army and navy of the United States 
now at Yorktown, and the Secretary of War and the 
Secretary of the Navy will give orders accordingly." 

It may be questioned if any part of the whole proceedings 
gave greater satisfaction to the American people than this 
graceful act of international courtesy. When the whole 
fleet fired a salute, which was answered by the guns from 
the batteries and camps on the shore, the people showed 
their approval by many demonstrations of delight and satis- 
faction. Loud cheers were raised, and hurrahs shouted by 
thousands of throats. Bands played the National Anthem, 
and everything was done to express and confirm all good 
feeling between the two nations. 

" This is the American method of thanking the Queen 
for her messages of sympathy in reference to General 
Garfield," said one who stood near. 

"That is so," was the response. "We are a great 
nation, and can appreciate greatness. Queen Victoria is 
a humane and Christian woman, as well as an illustrious 
sovereign, and we love her as much as her own people do." 

" Mrs. Garfield was exceedingly gratified and comforted 
oy the Queen's wreath and message sent to her." 

" Oh, yes, she was ; and there was something very 
touching and pathetic about the incident, too. One widow 
sends a kindly message to another widow. It was very 



GOOD OUT OF EVIL. 327 

good of Her Majesty, and the American people are not 
likely to forget it." 

" It was easy to read between the lines of that telegram. 
It seemed to say, ' I know what the trouble is, for I have had 
it to bear myself, and I can feel for you. The pomp and 
fuss, and national signs of mourning, cannot comfort the 
lonely heart; only God can do that, and I pray that He 
will ! ' Queen Victoria's message meant all this, and more." 

" Yes, I guess it did. She is a good woman, and I hope 
she will live long, and be very prosperous and happy. She 
has certainly, by her womanly kindness to us in our trouble, 
done more than a little to cement the bond of union between 
England and America." 

"May the bond never be broken, and God save the 
Queen ! " 

" And may England and America always be friends, and 
lims good come out of eviL" 




v -iv2"?^ v ' 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

THE END OF TIIE WICKED. 

1 Who slays a good man does a double crime, 
His name shall be disgraced till end of time." 




HE behaviour of murderers is never a pleasant 
subject of contemplation ; but in the case of 
the assassinator of President Garfield so much 
occurred, that the life of one can scarcely be written with- 
out some reference to the other. From the first it was 
evident that the man wished to pose before the public as a 
political fanatic ; and although it was certain that he was a 
murderer, he did not appear to expect a murderer's fate. 
His behaviour immediately after the murder is thus 
described : — 

The excitement and indignation became so great among 
the crowds that were rapidly assembling in all parts of the 
city, that the authorities grew apprehensive for the safety 
of the prisoner, and in order that any attempt at lynching 
might be frustrated, is was determined to remove him to 
the district jail, and General Sherman w T as applied to for 
the assistance of the military in case of an emergency 



THE END OF THE WICKED. 329 

General Sherman, after consulting Secretary Lincoln, 
ordered out three companies of United States artillery 
from the arsenal, one company being mounted as cavalry 
and two serving as infantry. One mounted and one foot 
company were stationed about the White House and 
grounds, and one was stationed at the jail. The district 
militia were also ordered to hold themselves in readiness, 
and remained under arms at their armouries all day. 
Guiteau was taken to jail in a carriage by Lieutenants 
Austin and Eckloff, and Detective McElfresh, of the 
district police. The last-named officer reports the follow- 
ing conversation with the prisoner while being conducted to 
jail : "I asked him, Where are you from ? " 

"I am a native-born American. Born in Chicago, and 
am a lawyer and a theologian." 

" Why did you do this 1 " 

w I did it to save the Eepublican party." 

" What are your politics 1 " 

" I am a Stalwart among the Stalwarts. With Garfield 
out of the way, we can carry all the Northern States, and 
v/ith him in the way, we can't carry a single one." 

Upon learning that McElfresh was a detective, Guiteau 
said, "You stick to me, and have me put in the third 
storey front at the gaol. General Sherman is coming down 
to take charge. Arthur and all those men are my friends, 
and I'll have you made chief of police. When you go back 
to the depot, you will find that I have left two bundles 
of papers at the news-stand, which will explain all." 

" Is there anybody else with you in this matter 1 " 

"Not a living soul. I have contemplated the thing 
for the last six weeks, and would have shot him when he 
went away with Mrs. Garfield, but I looked at her, and she 
seemed so bad that I changed my mind." 

On reaching the gaol, the officers of the institution did 
not seem to know anything about the assassination, and 



330 NEW WORLD HEROES. 

when taken inside, Mr. Russ, the deputy-warden, said, 
" This man has been here before." 

The detective then asked Guiteau, " Have you ever been 
here before ? " 

He replied, "No, sir." 

" Well, the deputy-warden seems to identify you." 

" Yes ; I was down here last Saturday morning, and 
wanted them to let me look through, and they told me that 
I couldn't, but to come on Monday." 

" "What was your object in looking through ? " 

11 1 wanted to see what sort of quarters I would have to 
occupy." 

Continuing, the detective said, "I then searched him, 
and when I pulled off his shoes, he said, ' Give me my 
shoes ; I will catch cold on this stone pavement.' I told 
him he couldn't have them, and then he said, ' Give me 
a pair of pumps, then.' " 

The district gaol, a large brown stone structure, situated 
at the eastern extremity of the city, was visited by an 
Associated Press reporter for the purpose of obtaining an 
interview with Charles Guiteau, the assassin of President 
Garfield. The officers refused admittance to the building, 
stating that they were acting under instructions from 
Attorney-General MacVeagh, the purport of which were 
that no one should be allowed to see the prisoner. At first, 
indeed, the officers emphatically denied that the man had 
been conveyed to the gaol, fearing, it appears, that should 
the fact be made known that he was there, the building 
would be attacked by a mob. Information had reached 
them that such a movement was contemplated. The state- 
ment that the assassin's name is Guiteau is verified by the 
officer in charge of the gaol. The prisoner arrived, and was 
placed in a cell about half -past ten o'clock, just one hour 
after the shooting occurred. He gave his name as Charles 
Guiteau of Chicago. In appearance he is about thirty years 



THE END OF THE WICKED. 331 

of age, and is supposed to be of French descent. His height 
is about five feet five inches. He has a sandy complexion, 
and is slight, weighing not more than a hundred and twenty- 
five pounds. He wears a moustache and light chin- whiskers \ 
and his sunken cheeks and eyes, far apart from each other, 
give him a sullen, or as the officers described it, a " loony " 
appearance. The officer in question gave it as his opinion 
that Guiteau is a Chicago Communist, and stated that he 
has noticed it to be a peculiarity of nearly all murderers that 
their eyes are far apart; and Guiteau, he said, proves no 
exception to the rule. When the prisoner arrived at the 
gaol, he was neatly attired in a suit of blue, and wore a 
drab hat, pulled down over his eyes, giving him the appear- 
ance of an ugly character. It may be worthy of note that 
two or three weeks ago Guiteau went to the gaol for the 
purpose of visiting it, but was refused admittance, on the 
ground that it was not " visitors' day." He at that time 
mentioned his name as Guiteau, and said that he came from 
Chicago. When brought to the gaol to-day, he was admitted 
by the officer who had previously refused to allow him to 
enter, and a mutual recognition took place, Guiteau saying, 
" You are the man who would not let me go through the 
gaol some time ago." The only other remark he made before 
being put in his cell was, that General Sherman would 
arrive at the gaol soon. The two gaolers who are guarding 
his cell state that they have seen him around the gaol 
several times recently, and that on one occasion he appeared 
to be under the influence of liquor. On one of his visits 
subsequent to the one mentioned, these officers say that 
Guiteau succeeded in reaching the rotunda of the building, 
where he was noticed examining the scaffold from which the 
Hirth murderers were hanged. Pursuant to his order from 
the Attorney-General, the officer in charge of the gaol 
declined to give any further information, nor would he state 
in what cell the prisoner was confined. This officer was an 



332 MEW WORLD HEROES. 

attendant at the old city gaol at the time of the assassination 
of President Lincoln. 

Proceedings were commenced within a few days of the 
death of the President to bring a charge of murder against 
Guiteau. There followed a delay which, even to English 
minds, was almost inexplicable, and people read the news- 
paper accounts of the prolonged trial with weariness and 
impatience. Every facility was offered for the prisoner to 
prove that he was not guilty ; and among the other pleas 
raised by his counsel was one of insanity. He himself 
published in one of the public journals a long statement of 
facts, and an explanation of his motives. 

He said, among other things — "My conception of the 
idea of removing the President was this: — Mr. Conkling 
resigned on Monday, 16 th May 1881. On the following 
Wednesday I was in bed. I think I retired about eight 
o'clock. I felt depressed and perplexed on account of the 
political situation, and I retired much earlier than usual. I 
felt wearied in mind and body, and I was in my bed about 
nine o'clock, and I was thinking over the political situation, 
and the idea flashed through my brain that if the President 
was out of the way everything would go better." 

He proceeded to give an account of his preparation for 
the crime, and said he was under a pressure that he could 
not resist. 

" I shot the President without malice or murderous 
intent. I deny any legal liability in this case. In order to 
constitute the crime of murder two elements must co-exist. 
First, an actual homicide ; second, malice — malice in law or 
malice in fact. The law presumes malice from the fact of 
the homicide; the degree of malice depends upon the 
condition of the man's mind at the time of the homicide. 
If two men quarrel, and one shoots the other in heat or 
passion, the law says that is manslaughter. The remoteness 
of the shooting from the moment of its conception fastens 



THE END OF THE WICKED. 333 

the degree of the malice. The further you go from the 
conception to the shooting, the greater the malice, because 
the law says that in shooting a man a few hours or a few 
days after the conception, the mind has a chance to cool, 
and therefore the act is deliberate. Malice in fact depends 
upon the circumstances attending the homicide — malice in 
law is liquidated in this case by the facts and circumstances, 
as set forth in these pages, attending the removal of the 
President. I had none but the best of feelings, personally, 
towards the President. I always thought of him and spoke 
of him as General Garfield." 

As the trial went on, the man continually interrupted 
the proceedings with frivolous objections and sensational 
exhibitions. At one time he expressed himself in the 
following terms : — " I propose to have all the facts bearing 
on this case to go to the court and the jury ; and to do this 
I have been forced to interrupt counsel and witnesses who 
were mistaken as to supposed facts. I meant no discourtesy 
to them, or to anyone. Any fact in my career bearing on 
the question who fired that shot — the Deity or myself — is of 
vital importance in this case, and I propose that it go to the 
jury. Hence any personal, political, and theological record 
may be developed. I am glad that your honour and the 
opposing counsel are disposed to give an historical review 
of my life, and I ask the press and the public to do likewise. 
All I want is absolute justice, and I shall not permit any 
crooked work. I have an idea my counsel want crooked 
work. They are often mistaken in supposed facts, and I 
shall have to correct them. Last spring certain newspapers 
in New York and Washington were bitterly denouncing the 
President for breaking up the Republican party by improper 
appointments. I would like those newspapers to reprint 
those editorials now, and see how they would look and 
sound. In attempting to remove the President, I only did 
what the papers said ought to be done. Since the 2nd of 



334 NEW WORLD HEROES. 

July they have been deifying the President, and denouncing 
me for doing the very thing they said ought to be done. 1 
want the newspapers and the doctors who actually killed 
the President to share with me the odium of his death, I 
never would have shot him of my own volition, notwith- 
standing those newspapers, if I had not been commissioned 
by the Deity to do the deed. But this fact does not relieve 
the newspapers from the supposed disgrace of the President's 
removal. If he had been properly treated, he would have 
been alive to-day. It has been published that I am in fear 
of death. It is false. I have always been a religious man, 
and an active worker for God. Some people think that I 
am a murderer, but the Lord does not, for He inspired the 
act, as in the case of Abraham, and a score of other cases in 
the Bible." 

The impertinence, assurance, and wickedness of these 
words are simply abominable. 

It was not until the end of January 1882 that the weary 
trial came to an end. The prisoner's interruptions had been 
so incessant and persistent, that the judge, who had allowed 
him to occupy a seat by his counsel, remanded him to the 
dock ; but even there his behaviour was no better. At 
length, on the 25th of January, Judge Cox delivered his 
charge to the jury, a masterpiece of lucidity, and exhaustive 
examination of facts. It concluded thus : — 

" From the materials presented to you, two pictures have 
been drawn to you by counsel. The one represents a youth 
of more than average mental endowments, surrounded by 
certain immoral influences at the time his character was 
being developed ; commencing life without resources, but 
developing a vicious sharpness and cunning ; conceiving 
enterprises of great pith and moment, that indicated 
unusual forecast, although beyond his resources ; consumed 
all the time by unsated egotism, and a craving for notoriety ; 
violent in temper, selfish, immoral, and dishonest ; leading 



THE END OF THE WICKED. 335 

a life of hypocrisy, swindling, and fraud ; and finally, as a 
culmination of his depraved career, working himself into 
the resolution of startling the world with a crime which 
would secure him a bad eminence. The other represents a 
youth, born, as it were, under malign influences, the child 
of a diseased mother, of a father subject to insane delusions, 
reared in retirement, and imbued with fanatical religious 
views ; subsequently his mind filled with fanatical theories ; 
launched on the world with no guidance save his own 
impulses ; evincing an incapacity for any continuous employ- 
ment ; changing from one pursuit to another — now a lawyer, 
now a religionist, now a politician — unsuccessful in all ; full 
of wild impracticable schemes, for which he had neither 
resources nor ability ; subject to delusions, his mind inco- 
fterent and incompetent of reasoning coherently on any 
subject ; with an intellect so weak, and a temper so impres- 
sionable, that he became deranged, and was therefore 
impelled to the commission of a crime, the seriousness of 
which he could not understand. It is for you, gentlemen, 
to determine which of the portraits is the true one. 

" And now, gentlemen, to sum up all I have said to you. 
If you find from the whole evidence that at the time of the 
commission of the homicide the prisoner was labouring 
under such a defect of his reason that he was incapable of 
understanding what he was doing, or of seeing that it was a 
wrong thing to do — as, for example, if he were under the 
insane delusion that the Almighty had commanded him 
to do the act — then he was not in a responsible condition of 
mind, but was an object of compassion, and should now be 
acquitted. If, on the other hand, you find that he was 
under no insane delusion, but had the possession of his 
faculties, and had power to know that his act was wrong ; 
and if of his own free will he deliberately conceived the 
idea, and executed the homicide, then, whether his motive 
were personal vindictiveness, political animosity, a desire to 



336 NEW WORLD HEROES. 

revenge supposed political wrongs, or a morbid desire for 
notoriety ; or, if you are unable to discover any motive 
at all, the act is simply murder, and it is your duty to 
find a verdict of guilty as indicted. Or, if you find that 
the prisoner is not guilty by reason of insanity, it is your 
duty to say so. You will now retire to your room and 
consider your verdict." 

They did so, and in less than an hour returned into 
court, and in answer to the customary questions as to the 
verdict, answered, " Guilty." A request was then made to 
have the jury polled ; and each man, on his name being 
called, pronounced the ominous word, " Guilty." The 
prisoner became greatly excited, and when the last man had 
delivered his verdict, he shrieked, " My blood will be on 
the heads of that jury. Don't you forget it." 

It was intimated that an effort would be made to move 
for a new trial ; and, in the meantime, Guiteau called out, 
in tones of desperation, " God will avenge this outrage." 

Eventually a motion for a new trial was overruled, and 
the prisoner was sentenced to be hanged on the 30th of 
June 1882. This was accordingly done, and gave all the 
world satisfaction ; for everyone felt that the deed of 
which he had been guilty was so dastardly and without 
excuse, that such a villain ought not to be allowed to 
remain upon the earth. 

Still greater satisfaction, however, was felt in regard to 
another circumstance — namely, that a subscription was 
started in New York for the benefit of the bereaved family 
of General Garfield. Mrs. Garfield enjoys the interest 
during her life ; and at her death the principal is to be 
divided among her children. 



CHAPTER XIX. 



COMRADES. 



" In the world's great field of battle, 
In the bivouac of life, 
Be not like dumb driven cattle, 
Be a hero in the strife." 




HE two men whose lives we have thus pourtrayecl, 
and the circumstances of whose births, careers, 
and deaths were so strangely similar, were in 
many respects brothers in their hearts and lives. They had 
both risen from the lowliest positions to the highest, by 
sheer force of will, to fight with adversity and win the 
victories of righteousness. They thought alike, and acted 
in harmony, and strove for the same ends in regard to all 
the great and important questions of the age. They w-ere 
both great men, worthy to follow in the footsteps of the 
immortal Washington, and to finish the labours which were 
commenced by him. They were both violently attacked by 
their political opponents — and they both, if not in life, then 
in death, proved that " when a man's ways please the Lord 
He maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him." 
Neither men loved war ; both went into it from a sense 
b 22 



338 NEW WORLD HEROES. 

of right, and both faithfully obeyed the voice of duty, to 
follow wherever it should lead. It was during the war that 
the two men were brought into contact ; and President 
Lincoln had no more loyal and hearty supporter than the 
man who was destined to afterwards fill his place and share 
his fate. In the midst of the trials that opposed Lincoln, 
and made his very life a burden to him, he knew that he 
could rely implicitly upon Garfield to be under all circum- 
stances his most faithful ally. 

And this was, not because of Garfield's interest to side 
with the President ; but the fact that the two men had 
really so much in common. 

We can imagine, for instance, with what pleasure and 
satisfaction the member of the Disciples' Church would 
read the following order, issued during the war by Lincoln 
to the soldiers and sailors of the Union : — 

"The President, Commander-in-Chief of the Army and 
Navy, desires and enjoins the orderly observance of the 
Sabbath by the officers and men in the military and naval 
service. The importance for man and beast of the prescribed 
weekly rest; the sacred rights of Christian soldiers and 
sailors, a becoming deference to the best sentiment of a 
Christian people, and a due regard for the Divine will, 
demand that Sunday labour in the army and navy be 
reduced to the measure of strict necessity. 

"The discipline and character of the national forces 
should not suffer, nor the cause they defend be imperilled 
by the profanation of the day, or name of the Most High. 
1 At this time of public distress,' adopting the words of 
Washington in 1776, 'men may find enough to do in the 
service of God and their country without abandoning them- 
selves to vice and immorality.' The first general order 
issued by the father of his country, after the Declaration of 
Independence, indicates the spirit in which our institutions 
were founded, and should ever be defended. ' The general 



COMRADES. 339 

hopes and trusts that every officer and man will endeavour 
to live and act as becomes a Christian soldier defending the 
dearest rights and liberties of his country.'"' 

This was precisely the spirit in which both Lincoln and 
Garfield wished the war to be carried on. The con- 
sequences of the war itself were terrible enough without 
any added miseries or crimes. And yet it was one that 
called forth the patriotism of all the best men in the 
States. 

There were not wanting descriptions of the war which 
told splendid tales of the heroism of the men and the officers 
who fought. But " our own correspondents " gave no more 
moving picture than one which was given in a sermon by 
the Rev. Robert Collyer of Chicago — delivered on the 2nd 
of March 1862, after a visit which he made to the battle- 
field at Fort Donelson : — " It was natural," said he, " when 
the news flashed into our city, that the great battle, as 
fierce for the number engaged in it, and as protracted as 
Waterloo, was turned into a transcendent victory ; and when 
bells were ringing, banners waving, men shaking hands 
everywhere, and breaking into a laughter that ended in 
tears, and into tears that ended in laughter — that we 
should all remember that thi3 victory had been won at a 
terrible price ; and that those bells, so jubilant to us, would 
be remembered by many a wife as the knell that told her 
she was a widow, by Rachels weeping for their children, 
and by desolate Davids uttering the old bitter cry, ' Would 
to God I had died for thee, my son, my son.' 

"And it was natural, too, that we should remember, thnt 
there, on that battle-field, must be vast numbers, friends and 
foes alike, suffering great agonies, which we could do some 
small thing to mitigate, if we could only get there with 
such medicines and surgery, refreshment and sympathy, as 
God had poured into the bosom of our great city. 

" One incident I remember as we were detained at Cairo, 



340 NEW WORLD HEROES. 

that gave me a sense of how curiously the laughter and 
tears of our lives are blended. I came across a group 
of men gathered around a soldier wounded in the head. 
Nothing would satisfy them but to see the hurt ; and the 
man, with perfect good nature, removed the bandage. It 
was a bullet-wound very near the centre of the forehead, 
and the man declared the ball had flattened and fallen off. 
1 But,' said a simple man, eagerly, c why didn't the ball go 
into your head 1 ' ' Sir,' said the soldier proudly ' my head 
is too hard : a ball can't get through it.' 

" A journey of one hundred and sixty miles up the Ohio 
and Cumberland rivers brought us to Fort Donelson, and 
we got there at sunset. I went at once into the camp, and 
found there dear friends who used to sit in these pews, 
and had stood fast through all the thickest battle. They 
gave us coffee, which they drank as if it were nectar, and 
we as if it were senna. 

11 Our ever-busy Mother Nature had already brought 
down great rains to wash the crimson stains from her 
bosom ; and it was only in some blanket cast under the 
bushes, or some loose garment taken from a wounded man, 
that these most fearful sights were to be seen. But all 
over the field were strewn the implements of death, with 
garments, harness, shot and shell, dead horses, and the 
resting places of dead men. Almost a week had passed 
since the battle, and most of the dead were buried. We 
heard of twos and threes, and in one place of eleven, still 
lying where they fell ; and, as we rode down a lonely pass, 
we came to one waiting to be laid in the dust, and stopped 
for a moment to note the sad sight. Pray, look out from 
my eyes at him as he lies where he fell. You see by his 
garb that he is one of the rebel army ; and, by the peculiar 
marks of that class, that he is a city rough. There is little 
about him to soften the grim picture that rises up before 
you, a3 he rests in perfect stillness by that fallen tree ; but 



COMRADES. 341 

there is a shawl, coarse and homely, that must have belonged 
to some woman ; and — 

' His hands are folded on his breast j 
There is no other thing expressed, 
But long disquiet merged in rest.' 

" Will you still let me guide you through that scene as it 
comes up before me? That long mound, with pieces of 
board here and there, is a grave ; and sixty-one of our brave 
fellows rest in it, side by side. Those pieces of board are 
the gravestones, and the chisel is a black lead pencil. 
The queer, straggling letters tell you that the common 
soldier has done this to preserve, for a few days at least, 
the memory of one who used to go out with him on the 
dangerous picket-guard, and sit with him by the camp fire, 
and whisper to him, as they lay side by side in the tent 
through the still winter night, the hope he had before him 
when the war was over, or the trust in this comrade if he 
fell. There you see one large board, and in a beautiful 
flowing hand, 'John Oliver, Thirty-first Illinois,' and you 
wonder for a moment whether the man who has so tried to 
surpass the rest was nursed at the same breast as John 
Oliver ; or whether John was a comrade, hearty and trusty 
beyond all price. 

" And you will observe that the dead are buried in com- 
panies, every man in his own company, side by side ; that 
the prisoners are sent out after the battle to bury their own 
dead ; but that our own men will not permit them to bury 
a fellow-soldier of the Union, but every man in this sacred 
cause is held sacred even for the grave. 

" And thus, on the crest of a hill, is the place where the 
dwellers in that little town have buried their dead, since 
ever they came to live on the bank of the river. White 
marble, and grey limestone, and decayed wooden monu- 
ments tell who rests beneath. There stands a grey stone, 



342 NEW WORLD HERGES. 

cut with these home-made letters that tell you how William 
N. Ross died on the 26th day of March 1814, in the 
twenty-sixth year of his age; and right alongside are the 
graves, newly made, of men who died last week in a strife 
which no wild imagining of this native man ever conceived 
possible in that quiet spot. Here, in the midst of the 
cemetery, the rebel officers have pitched their tents, for the 
place is one where a commander can see easily the greater 
part of the camp. Here is a tent where some woman has 
lived, for she has left a sewing machine and a small churn. 
Not far away you see a hapless kitten shot dead; and 
everywhere things that make you shudder, and fill you with 
sadness, over a wreck and ruin of war. 

" Here you meet a man who has been in command, and 
stood fast ; and when you say some simple word of praise 
to him in the name of all who love their country, he blushes 
and stammers like a woman, and tells you he tried to do his 
best ; and when we get to Mound City we shall find a man 
racked with pain, who forgets his sufferings in telling how 
this brave man you have just spoken to not only stood by 
his own regiment in a fierce storm of shot, but, when he 
saw a regiment near his own giving back, because their 
officers showed the white feather, rode up to the regiment, 
hurled a mighty cry at those who w r ere giving back, stood 
fast by the men in thickest fight, and saved them ; and, says 
the sick man, with tears in his eyes, ( I would rather be a 
private under him than a captain under any other man.' 

" I notice one feature in this camp that I never saw 
before; the men do not swear and use profane words as 
they used to do. There is a little touch of seriousness about 
them. They are cheerful and hearty, and in a few days 
they will mostly fall back into the old bad habit so painful 
to hear; but they have been too near to the tremendous 
verities of hell and heaven on the battle-field to turn them 
into small change for every-day use just yet. They have 



COMRADES. 343 

taken the Eternal Name for common purposes a thousand 
times ; and we feel as if we could say with Paul, ' The 
times of this ignorance God passes by.' But on that fearful 
day, when judgment fires were all aflame, a voice said, ' Be 
still, and know that I am God ; ' and they are still under 
the shadow of that awful name." 

The troubles of a nation are often, more than anything 
beside, the bringers of strength and real nobility of 
character. The war left its traces in many thousands of 
darkened homes ; and yet the very children that have since 
grown up in the homes have been more heroic because their 
fathers were heroes. In any case, we in England feel that 
although the cause of slavery was not wiped out except at 
an awful cost, the liberty of God's creatures was worth it 
all. 

It was seen then, and understood for the first time, how 
many really great men enriched the United States. There 
were not a few, but many heroes. Take, for example, the 
character of General Thomas, who fought with Garfield, 
and on whose character he pronounced the following among 
many eulogistic words : — 

" Thomas's life is a notable illustration of the virtue and 
power of hard work ; and in the last analysis the power to 
do hard work is only another name for talent. Professor 
Church, one of his instructors at West Point, says of his 
student life, that ' he never allowed anything to escape a 
thorough examination, and left nothing behind that he did 
not fully comprehend.' And so it was in the army. To him 
a battle was neither an earthquake, nor volcano, nor a chaos 
of brave men and frantic horses, involved in vast explosions 
of gunpowder. It was rather a calm, rational concentration 
of force against force. It was a question of lines and posi- 
tions, of weight of metal and strength of battalions. He 
knew that the elements and forces which bring victory are 
not created on the battle-field, but must be patiently 



S44 NEW WORLD HEROES. 

elaborated in the quiet of the camp, by the perfect organisa- 
tion and outfit of his army. His remark to a captain of 
artillery, while inspecting a battery, is worth remembering, 
for it exhibits his theory of success : ' Keep everything in 
order, for the fate of a battle may turn on a buckle or a 
linen-pin.' He understood so thoroughly the condition of 
his army and its equipments, that when the hour of trial 
came he knew how great a pressure it could stand, and how 
hard a blow it could strike. 

"His character was as grand and simple as a colossal pillar 
of chiselled granite. Every step of his career as a soldier 
was marked by the most loyal and unhesitating obedience to 
law — to the laws of his Government, and to the commands 
of his superiors. The obedience which he rendered to 
those above him he rigidly required of those under his 
command. 

" His influence over the troops grew steadily and con- 
stantly. He won his ascendancy over them neither by 
artificial, nor by any one act of special daring, but he 
gradually filled them with his own spirit, until their con- 
fidence in him knew no bounds. 

" His power as a commander was developed slowly and 
silently ; not like volcanic land lifted from the sea by 
sudden and violent upheaval, but rather like a coral island, 
where each increment is a growth — an act of life and 
work." 

The same words might have been spoken by some one 
else upon James Garfield himself ; and also, as far as they 
relate to character rather than to circumstance, upon 
Lincoln too. Both men were alike in their chivalry and 
tenderness towards women. Garfield was doubtless the 
more refined of the two. His wife and mother were 
women of so high and excellent a type, that few have 
equalled them ; and his love and reverence for them made 
Garfield the more gallant and chivalrous to all women for 



COMRADES. 345 

their sakes. And Lincoln showed that he, too, could 
appreciate the noble qualities of the American women. 

He was on one occasion, and only a short time before he 
died, speaking at a fair held on behalf of the soldiers. 
" This extraordinary war," he said, " in which we are now 
engaged falls heavily upon all classes of people, but the most 
heavily upon the soldier. For it has been said, * All that a 
man hath will he give for his life;' and while all contribute 
of their substance, the soldier puts his life at stake, and 
often yields it up in his country's cause. The highest merit, 
then, is due to the soldier. 

" In this extraordinary war, extraordinary developments 
have manifested themselves, such as have not been seen in 
former wars ; and among these manifestations nothing has 
been more remarkable than these fairs for the relief of 
suffering soldiers and their families. And the chief agents 
in these fairs are the women of America. I am not 
accustomed to the use of the language of eulogy. I have 
never studied the art of paying compliments to women, 
but I must say that, if all that has been said by orators 
and poets, since the creation of the world, in praise of 
women were applied to the women of America, it would 
not do them justice for their conduct during this war. 
I will conclude by saying, 'God bless the women of 
America.' " 

The men were, indeed, comrades in arms ! They fought 
together against Wrong, and Slavery, and Sin, and Oppres- 
sion, as in their younger days they had fought against 
Poverty, Ignorance, and Want. They fought under one 
Master, for both loved and served Jesus, and obeyed Him 
as their Captain. Let us give thanks for their lives, and 
be glad that the brave soldiers have gone to their reward, 
and have received the Master's " Well done ! " 



CHAPTER XX. 

WHAT MADE THEM HEROES 1 

li Live not for thyself alone ! 

Know that God made all men brothers ; 
Therefore let thy deeds be done 
Ever for the good of others." 




HY do we give the name of Hero to each of the 
two men whose lives are before us ? 

Every man who honestly works his way from 
a lowly position to a higher one has something heroic in 
him ; and measured by this test, Lincoln and Garfield were 
certainly heroes. The great Washington, whom all the 
world delights to honour, and America most of all, was of 
gentle blood, and represented the higher intellectual and 
social phase of American life. His education, and the 
circumstances of his family, made him rather the repre- 
sentative of the aristocratic class than that of the self-made 
men. But Lincoln and Garfield, statesmen and patriots 
both of an exceedingly high order, were from the ranks of 
the people, and illustrated in themselves the marvellous 
possibilities of American citizenship. From the most 
illiterate to the most refined condition, from the poorest 



WHAT MADE THEM HERGES? 347 

position to the most honourable, from the wooden stools and 
hard beds of the poor to the pictures and luxurious acces- 
sories of wealth, from the log-hut to the executive mansion, 
need not necessarily be a very long journey in America. 

In England there are wonderful opportunities for deter- 
mined young spirits. We have our Dick Whittingtons 
and our Livingstones, our mayors and artists, our wealthy 
merchants and famous literary men, who have won their 
own way in the world. To the young who are at the bottom 
of the social ladder, whose homes are poor, and who have to 
work hard, it ought to be an encouragement to read of two 
heroes who had to pass through the same difficulties. Look 
at the early days of the two men, Lincoln first : — 

"After a seven days' journey through an uninhabited 
country, their resting-place at night being a blanket spread 
upon the ground, they arrived at the spot selected for their 
future residence, and no unnecessary delays were permitted 
to interfere with the immediate and successful clearing of a 
site for the cabin. An axe was placed in Abe's hands, and 
with the additional assistance of a neighbour, in two or 
three days Mr. Lincoln had a neat house of about eighteen 
feet square, the logs composing which being fastened 
together in the usual manner by notches, and the cracks 
between them filled with mud. A loft in this hut was 
Abe's bedroom, and there, night after night for many years, 
he who afterwards occupied the most exalted position in the 
gift of the American people, and who dwelt in the White 
House at Washington, surrounded by all the comforts that 
wealth and power could give, slumbered with one coarse 
blanket for his mattress and another for his covering." 

The same contrast was seen in the case of Garfield as 
of Lincoln : — 

" The country was nearly all wild, and the new farms 
had to be carved out of the forest. The dwelling of the 
Garfields was built after the standard pattern of the houses 



348 KEJV WORLD HEROES. 

of poor Ohio farmers in that day. Its walls were of logs, 
its roof was of shingles split with an axe, and its floor of 
rude thick planking, split out of tree-trunks with a wedge 
and maul. It had only a single room, at one end of which 
was the big cavernous chimney, where the cooking was 
done, and at the other end a bed. The younger children 
slept in a trundle bed, which was pushed under the bed- 
stead of their parents in the daytime, to get it out of the 
way, for there was no room to spare; the older ones climbed 
a ladder to the loft under the steep roof. In this house 
James A. Garfield was born 19th November 1831." 

But poverty of itself never made heroes. There must be 
the spirit of self-denial and determination, and then the 
poverty will prove no hindrance to a man's advancement. 

The persistent resolve to succeed in that to which they 
put their hands was seen in nothing more plainly than in 
the manner of gaining an education which characterised 
both Lincoln and Garfield. The rail-splitter and the tow- 
path lad were alike awake to the fact that ignorance does 
nothing, and learning helps to the accomplishment of all 
things. 

Of Lincoln we are told : — " The lad had an offer which 
promised to afford him employment during the long 
monotonous evenings; a young man who had removed 
into the neighbourhood having offered to teach him how 
to write. The opportunity was too fraught with benefit to 
be rejected, and after a few weeks of practice under the eye 
of his instructor, and also out of doors with a piece of 
chalk or charred stick, he was able to write his name, and 
in less than twelve months could, and did, write a letter. 
Six months of instruction within the walls of an insignifi- 
cant school-house was all the school education that Abraham 
Lincoln received during a long life-time, the greater part of 
which was spent in public positions, where ability and 
talent were indispensable requisites." 



WHAT MADE TEEM HEROES? 349 

And of Garfield we are told : — " He studied hard, often 
walked alone in the roads or fields, and attended to all his 
duties with promptness. During his collegiate course he 
tried to earn small sums of money by teaching evening 
writing-school, but never secured a very profitable number 
of scholars. He dressed very plainly and cheaply, and 
was compelled to economise in every way. But Garfield's 
student days appear to have impressed him as but a 
portion of a whole life of study." 

It was the self-helpfulness which both men possessed in 
such an unusual degree that was the secret of their success 
in educational, as in all other matters. They exercised the 
native talents with which God had endowed them ; and in 
circumstances comparatively unfavourable, they both mani- 
fested the sterling worth of character that is more valuable 
than gold or silver. 

And there was something heroic in the way in which 
both men were willing to acknowledge in their prosperity 
the uses and blessings of their adversity. The flat-boat 
builder and the plank-planer never grew too proud to 
speak of their humble origin. They never forgot that they 
were of the people, and that they shared with the people 
an identity of experiences and interests. Both men were 
wise enough to appreciate the power which their early 
poverty gave them over the nation of which they became the 
leaders. In gladness or sorrow they could sympathise with 
them. They knew how surely happiness and prosperity 
spring from the great principles of justice and humanity. 

Both men were full of kindness of heart towards the 
poor. A Washington correspondent said, that when he 
entered the President's office one afternoon, he found Mr. 
Lincoln busily counting greenbacks. 

" This, sir," said Lincoln, " is out of my usual line." 

" Do you mean that a President of the United States has 
very little to do with money 1 " 



350 imW WORLD HEROES. 

" ISTo, not that. But a President of the United Statea 
has a multiplicity of duties not specified in the Constitution 
or Acts of Congress. This is one of them." 

" How is that, sir ? " 

" This money belongs to a poor negro who is a porter in 
the Treasury Department, at present very bad with the 
small-pox. He is now in hospital, and could not draw his 
pay because he could not sign his name. I have been at 
considerable trouble to overcome the difficulty and get it 
for him, and have at length succeeded in cutting red tape, 
as you newspaper men say. I am now dividing the money, 
and putting by a portion labelled in an envelope with my 
own hands, according to his wish." 

Mr. Lincoln went on with his work, and indorsed the 
package very carefully. 

" No one," added the correspondent, " witnessing the 
transaction, could fail to appreciate the goodness of heart 
which prompted the President of the United States to turn 
aside for a time from his weighty cares, to succour one 
of the humblest of his fellow-creatures in sickness and 
sorrow." 

President Garfield was not less kind than President 
Lincoln, though the stories told of him are somewhat 
different. One of his former pupils said, " No matter how 
old we were, Garfield always called us by our first names, 
and kept himself on the most familiar terms with all. He 
played with us freely, scuffled with us sometimes, and 
talked with us in walking to and fro ; and we treated him, 
out of the class-room, just about as we treated one another. 
Yet he was a most strict disciplinarian, and enforced the 
rules like a martinet. He combined an affectionate and 
confiding manner, with respect for order, in a most remark- 
able degree. If he wanted to speak to a pupil, either for 
reproof or approbation, he would generally manage to get 
one arm around him, and draw him close up to him. He 



WHAT MADE TIIEM HEROES? 351 

had a peculiar way of shaking hands, too, giving a twist to 
your arm and drawing you right up to him. This syrm 
pathetic manner has helped him to advancement. When I 
was a janitor he used sometimes to stop me, and ask my 
opinion about this and that, as if seriously advising- with 
me. I can see that my opinion could not have been of any 
value, and that he probably asked me partly to show me 
that he felt an interest in me. I was certainly his friend 
all the firmer for it." 

There are not many records of meetings and conversations 
between the two men ; but one rather amusing one is told 
of some remarks made by Lincoln to Garfield on one 
occasion. 

" By the way, Garfield," said Mr. Lincoln, " you never 
heard, did you, that Chase, Stanton, and I had a campaign 
of our own 1 We went down to Fortress Monroe in Chase's 
revenue cutter, and consulted with Admiral Goldsborough 
as to the feasibility of taking Norfolk by landing on the 
north shore, and making a march of eight miles. The 
Admiral said, very positively, there was no landing on that 
shore, and we should have to double the Cape and approach 
the place from the south side, which would be a long and 
difficult journey. I thereupon asked him if he had ever 
tried to find a landing, and he said he had not. 'Now,' 
said I, ' Admiral, that reminds me of a chap out West who 
had studied law, but had never tried a case. Being sued, 
and not having confidence in his ability to manage his own 
case, he employed a fellow lawyer to manage it for him. 
He had only a confused idea of the meaning of law terms, 
but was anxious to make a display of learning, and on the 
trial constantly made suggestions to his lawyer, who paid 
no attention to him. At last, fearing that his lawyer was 
not handling the opposing counsel very well, he lost all 
patience, and springing to his feet, cried out, ' Why don't 
you go at him with a capias, or a surre-butter, or some- 



352 NEW WORLD HEROES. 

thing, and not stand there like a confounded old nudum* 
pactum I ' " 

Abraham Lincoln seems never to have spoken to any 
man without telling him a tale of some kind. Doubtless, if 
the future could have been foreseen at the time when these 
two men were together, more incidents and conversations 
and stories would have been forthcoming. 

Both were cheerful, and even merry; and both were 
good. A writer who knew Lincoln says of him : — 

" Mr. Lincoln could scarcely be called a religious man, in 
the common acceptation of the term, yet a sincerer Christian 
I believe never lived. A constitutional tendency to dwell 
upon sacred things ; an emotional nature, which finds ready 
expression in religious conversation and revival meetings ; 
the culture and development of the devotional element, till 
the expression of religious thought and experience becomes 
almost habitual, were not among his characteristics. Doubt- 
less he felt as deeply upon the great question of the soul and 
eternity as any other thoughtful man, but the very tender- 
ness and humility of his nature would not permit the 
exposure of his inmost convictions, except upon the rarest 
occasions, and to his most intimate friends. And yet, aside 
from emotional expression, I believe no man had a more 
abiding sense of his dependence upon God, or faith in the 
divine government, and in the power and ultimate triumph 
of Truth and Right in the world. In the language of an 
eminent clergyman of this city, who lately delivered an 
eloquent discourse upon the life and character of the 
departed President, ' It is not necessary to appeal to 
apocryphal stories in circulation in the newspapers — which 
illustrate as much the assurance of his visitors as the 
simplicity of his faith — for proof of Mr. Lincoln's Christian 
character.' If his daily life and various public addresses 
and writings do not show this, surely nothing can ever 
demonstrate it." 



WHAT MADE THEM HEROES? 353 

Another writer, Mr. Noah Brooks, in Harper's Magazine^ 
gave the following reminiscence : — " Just after the Presi- 
dential election he said, ' Being only mortal, after all I 
should have been a little mortified if I had been beaten in 
this canvasH before the people ; but that sting would have 
been more than compensated by the thought that the people 
had notified me that all my official responsibilities had been 
lifted off my back.' In reply to the remark that he might 
remember that in all these cares he was daily remembered 
by those who prayed, not to be heard of men, as no man 
had ever before been remembered, he caught at the homely 
phrase, and said, 'Yes, I like that phrase, "Not to be heard 
of men," and guess it is generally true as you say ; at least I 
have been told so, and have been a good deal helped by just 
that thought.' Then he solemnly and slowly added, 'I 
should be the most presumptuous blockhead upon this foot- 
stool, if I for one day thought that I could discharge the 
duties which have come upon me since I came into this 
place, without the aid and enlightenment of One who is 
stronger and wiser than all others. ' " 

James Garfield was a more decidedly pronounced Chris- 
tian than Abraham Lincoln. Dr. Errett, in his funeral 
address, gave the following information : — " When James 
Garfield was yet a mere lad, in this county a series of 
religious meetings were held in one of the towns of Cuya- 
hoga County by a minister by no means attractive as an 
orator, possessing none of the graces of an orator, and 
marked only by entire sincerity, by good reasoning powers, 
and by earnestness in seeking to win souls from sin to 
righteousness. The lad Garfield attended these meetings 
for many nights, and after giving earnest attention to the 
sermons, he went one day to the minister and said to 
him, « Sir, I have been listening to your preaching night 
after night, and I am fully persuaded that if these things 
you say are true, it is the duty and the highest interest of 

b 23 



354 NEW WORLD HEROES. 

every man of respectability, and especially of every young 
man, to accept that religion and seek to be a man. But, 
really, I don't know whether this thing is true or not. I 
can't say that I disbelieve it, but I dare not say that I truly 
and honestly believe it. If I were sure that it was true, I 
would most gladly give it my heart and my life.' So, after 
a long talk, the minister preached that night on the text, 
1 "What is truth *? ' and proceeded to show that, notwith- 
standing all the various and conflicting theories and opinions 
in ethical science, and notwithstanding aU the various and 
conflicting opinions in the world, there was one assured and 
eternal alliance for every human soul in Jesus Christ ; that 
every soul was safe with Jesus Christ ; that he never would 
mislead ; that any young man giving Him his hand and 
heart, and walking in His pathway, would net go astray ; 
and that whatever might be the solution of ten thousand 
insoluble mysteries, at the end of all things the man who 
loved Jesus Christ and walked after the footsteps of Jesus, 
and realised in spirit and life the pure morals and the sweet 
piety, was safe, if safety there were in the universe of God \ 
safe, whatever else was safe ; safe, whatever else might 
prove unworthy and perish for ever. And he seized upon it 
after due reflection, and came forward and gave his hand to 
the minister in pledge of his acceptance of the guidance of 
Christ for his life, and turned his back upon the sins of the 
world for ever. The boy is father to the man ; and that 
pure honesty and integrity, and that fearless spirit to 
inquire, and that brave surrender of all the charms of sin 
to convictions of duty and right, went with him from that 
boyhood throughout his life, and crowned him with the 
honours that were so cheerfully u-.vavded to him from all 
hearts o^er this ^ast land There was another thing — ho 
passed all through the conditions of virtuous life between 
the log cabin in Cuyahoga and the White House ; and in 
that wonderfully rich and varied experience, moving up 



WHAT MADE THEM HEROES? 355 

from higher to higher, he has touched every heart in ali 
this land at some point or other, and he became the repre- 
sentative of all hearts and lives in this land ; not only the 
teacher, but the representative of all virtues, for he knew 
their wants and their condition, and he established legiti- 
mately the ties of brotherhood with every man with whom 
he came in contact. I take it that this vow, lying at the 
basis of his character, this rock on winch his whole life 
rested, followed up by the perpetual and enduring industry 
that marked his whole career, made him at once the honest 
and the capable man, who invited and received, in every act 
of his life, the confidence, and trust, and love of all who 
earned to know him." 

The truest Christians are the greatest heroes. Garfield's 
family coat of arms, " In cruce vinco " — " By the cross I 
conq uer " — may have supplied him with the motive power of 
his life. He knew and trusted the greatest Hero the world 
has ever known, and his fellowship with Him made him 
philanthropic, merciful, gentle, and righteous. 

Both Lincoln and Garfield proved themselves heroes by 
the way in which they met death. Neither was afraid to 
die. In the one case, however, the man must have lived in 
almost constant remembrance that his life had been 
threatened ; while in the other there could have been little 
expectation or fear. There was something remarkable, too, 
in the fact that the one who, knowing how often he had 
been threatened, had plenty of time for preparation, was shot, 
if not dead on the spot, so murderously that he did not 
speak afterwards; while the other, who had received no 
warning, lay for more than two months between life and 
death. Lincoln was no coward. He once said, " It would 
never do for a President to have guards with drawn sabres 
at his door, as if he were, or were trying to be, or were 
assuming to be, an emperor." He said, too, " Soon after I 
was nominated at Chicago I began to receive letters 



356 NEW WORLD HEROES. 

threatening my life. The first one or two made me a little 
uncomfortable, but I came at length to look for a regular 
instalment of this kind of correspondence in every week's 
mail, and up to inauguration day I was in constant receipt of 
such letters. There is nothing like getting used to things.'' 

He did not want to die suddenly, and always declared 
that he would be a coward in front of a gun. But the fear 
of death never prevented him from doing that which he 
believed to be his duty. And if he had known beforehand 
that there would come to him the shot of the assassin, it 
would have made him none the less resolute to do the rignt 
according to the light that was given him. 

Neither did Garfield want to die. There is no doubt, 
indeed, that his hope and longing to recover helped in part 
to make the last struggle uncertain for so long. Garfield 
loved the beautiful earth, with all its flowers and sunshine, 
its friendships and joys. He would have got well if he 
could. Had he not a mother who loved him, a wife who 
was devoted to him, and children and friends who revered 
him 1 And it was in the summer time that he was smitten 
down ; and while he lay in pain and weakness, alternating 
between life and death, he could hear the gentle voices of 
those who fain would have spoken words of comfort to him, 
he could hear the twitter of birds upon the lawn, and the 
lap of the sea as it broke upon the shore. Sweet scents 
came to him as he lay, to remind him of the charms which 
the world possesses. As one beautifully said at Chicago : — 

" He wanted to the very last to live, and said so, and 
scanned the poor thin face for some sign that it might be 
so, and was no more resigned to go than we were to have 
him go; and felt as we do, that, so far as we can understand 
the divine love which encircles all our lives, it was not 
God's will that he should perish. Now, nothing he has 
done seems more beautiful to me than the grand soldierly 
resolution to hold on to his life, and have the whole worth 



WHAT MADE THEM HEROES? 357 

of it, for his own sake and for ours. Life was dear to him. 
He loved the world. It was a beautiful world. When he had 
taken the great solemn oath, standing before all the people, 
the first thing he did was to turn to his old mother and his 
wife, and kiss them, sealing in that grand simple way the 
oath he had taken to serve us well. In some men that 
would have been the merest clap-trap ; in James Garfield 
it was the fine flower of his whole manhood. They took 
the sacrament when they were crowned in the great old 
lands : that was his sacrament ; and the noble old mother 
blessed her son, and the sweet, true wife her husband, and 
the children's hearts beat quick and proud for their father ; 
and surely since the world was made we have seen nothing 
more sacred than this, in which the old home-life flashed 
out for an instant in that new beatitude. And so the 
home and the home treasures were what the good President 
fought for through the weakness and the pain. How could he 
submit if there was any help on earth or in heaven 1 He 
saw the fear in the face that had challenged him once out 
of all the world, and heard it in the voice to which his 
heart answered, and heard it in the sobs of the children; 
and there the instinct of a true man, who has all these 
treasures to guard, rose towering like some great angel 
over the threat of dissolution." 

But though this was so, the hero was ready to die. 
There is a well-known picture by Sir Noel Paton. which 
represents a knight passing through death to immortality. 
More than a few people must have thought of Garfield in 
connection with it, or it in connection with him. The hero 
has fought his life's battles well, but the end has come now. 
He has been brave, but now he is weary, and lifts his white 
face with a smile as he sees that death is only an angel of 
light. He has fought a good fight, he has finished his 
course, he has kept the faith : henceforth there is laid up tor 
him a crown of life. 




CHAPTER XXI. 

THE LESSONS OF THEIR LIVES, 

11 Lives of great men all remind us 

We may make our lives sublime, 
And departing, leave behind us 

Footprints on the sands of time ; 
Footprints that perhaps another, 

Sailing o'er life's chequered main, 
Some forlorn or shipwrecked brother, 

Seeing may take heart again." 




INCOLN and Garfield, the New World Heroes, 
were living illustrations of the inspiring words of 
their own poet, Longfellow. They were really 
great men, and they have left " footprints on the sands of 
time" which will not soon be obliterated. We may hope that 
the story of their humble beginnings, their political achieve- 
ments, and their soldier-like end, may fire the hearts of 
thousands of the boys in England to try and follow in their 
steps. 

What are the chief lessons to be learnt from the histories 
of these two men 1 

The first is, that no poor boy is compelled to grow into a. 
pour man, 



THE LESSONS OF THEIR LIVES. 359 

In these days, especially, everything depends, not upon 
the circumstances in which a man is born, but upon the 
mettle of which he is made — the spirit that is in him If 
Lincoln and Garfield, without a penny to start them in life, 
without a friend in a good position to stretch out a helping 
hand, could rise to the very topmost step of the social 
ladder, what may not any boy do 1 Look at them in the 
first years of their life ; what do they possess ? No clothes, 
no education, no money, no friends. What are their 
possessions 1 They have none. And yet they had ! They 
were young, they were strong, they were industrious, they 
were persistent, they were masters of themselves. And so 
they possessed the best qualifications for success in life that 
could be enjoyed by any. After reading their biographies, 
let no boy say, that because his parents lived in poverty 
and obscurity he, too, must be poor and obscure for the 
whole of his life. Not at all ! He has, perhaps, even a 
better chance of rising in the world, and doing w^ell with 
his life, than if he had been the inheritor of riches. Any 
observer of the habits and lives of the people of England 
to-day will be struck by seeing how frequently young men 
who come into the substance gathered by their fathers 
waste it in a few years. 

Who does not know of instances in which a man has 
commenced business in a humble way and without capital, 
has worked up the small business to a large one, and 
gradually but steadily accumulated property, until he has 
become known as a successful merchant, who retires from 
the business, which he hands over to his son, and himself 
spends the later years of his life in the enjoyment of leisure, 
wealth, and municipal honours ? while the son, in his turn, 
sees the business dwindle, the income fall below the ex- 
penditure, and not many years after his father's death has 
to go through the humiliation of bankruptcy and the 
trouble of ruin 1 Such occurrences are so common that 



360 NEW WORLD HEROES. 

every one knows of them ; so common, that they may 
lead us to wonder whether a young man who starts in 
life with nothing but his own clear brains, his own 
clever hands, and his own strong heart, has not a better 
capital than he who inherits a good business and plenty of 
money without them. 

Let no one be discouraged because he is poor. Poverty 
is not necessarily a great stumbling-block to progress. It 
may be used as a stepping-stone from the lowly places to 
the heights of ambition. And every British boy has now 
the one thing which, above all others, gives a man a start 
in life. There is no need now for a boy to write his sums 
on odd pieces of wood, or study the sign-posts in order to 
learn to read. An education is to be for ever in the future 
of England the birthright of her children. And having 
this, the world is free to any boy. He will find that life is 
a battle ; but it will be quite open to him to win. It is a 
competitive examination all through ; and always the best 
equipped, the most clever, and the most persevering, will 
carry off the prizes. Any young man, therefore, may 
aspire to wealth and honour. In England, perhaps, not 
less than in America, people can make their own fortunes, 
or lose those that tneir fathers made. It depends upon 
themselves whether they shall be, in the fierce battle that is 
being fought, the victors or the vanquished. Let them, 
therefore, resolve with their whole heart as to what they 
will do and be, and carry their purpose through all 
obstacles. 

But the second lesson taught by the lives of Lincoln and 
Garfield is, that although success is possible to all, only a few 
win it. 

What of those who were companions of the two boys who 
became heroes ? The world has never heard of them. Why 
not 1 The upward path was as free to them as to these. 
They, too, could have borrowed books ; they, too, could 



THE LESSONS OF THE IE LIVES. 361 

have thought wisely ; they, too, could have spoken and 
acted. Why have not their words come down to us, their 
actions won renown ? 

We know that there is another power than his own 
which every man has to feel. " The blessing of the Lord 
maketh rich." "Except the Lord build the house, they 
labour in vain who build it." But still a great deal 
depends upon the man himself. Many people fail who 
might rise, because they are hindered by their own weak- 
nesses. Self-indulgence is at the source of much that spoils 
a life. It is more pleasant to pamper than to vigorously 
deny self, and most people do the more pleasant thing as 
far as they can. To be always at work requires a strong 
whip, and we are not at all disposed to whip ourselves. No 
one succeeds in life who only does just what he is com- 
pelled. Incessant industry is a condition of success. If 
Lincoln had contented himself with splitting a dozen 
instead of a hundred rails at a time ; if Garfield had risen 
late, and gone to bed early when it was free for him to 
choose which he should do, we should never have heard of 
either. Their habit was to work, and to keep on working, 
and to make the work tell. Some people work by fits and 
starts only — they are never the most successful men j it is 
those who are always in earnest, who are painstaking 
enough to look again and again at the same thing, and to 
give to it unwearied attention, who succeed. And a great 
deal depends upon the patience with which a man attends 
to all the details of his work. If he does not give time and 
thought to little things as well as great, he will not be as 
successful as he might be. But if his work is to him more 
than his ease, and more than his comfort, more, indeed, than 
all beside, he will not only succeed in it, but rise by it, 
And each can measure himself by these tests, and so know 
at once whether he will be one of the few who triumph oy 

of the many who are defeated. 

b 24- 



362 NEW WORLD HEROES. 

Another lesson which these men teach is, that in 
every great life, character is an important element of 
success. 

These men were great because they were good. They 
were truthful. Even as boys they would not lie. They 
gave their word as an honourable bond, and neither would 
break it. And because they were trustworthy they were 
trusted. The nation discovered, what individuals had 
learnt, that the most implicit confidence could be placed 
in them. While they were yet young it was known that 
they would work as well in the master's absence as if his 
eyes were upon them. And as they grew older, and filled 
more important positions, the same repose of mind was felt 
in regard to them. They both illustrate the saying of 
Jesus, "He that is faithful in that which is least is 
faithful also in much." And this quality of faithfulness 
contributed more than a little to their prosperity. We 
shall find it the same in every instance. Those who are not 
to be relied upon cannot hope to prosper. Many fail 
because the fiat has gone forth — " Unstable as water, thou 
shalt not excel." These men succeeded because they were 
steadfast, firm, and faithful, and also because they were self- 
controlled. They had conquered themselves, and therefore 
they were masters of others. The rulers of their own 
spirits, they became also rulers of men. If this element be 
absent, there is a blemish in the character that will prevent 
it from becoming really great. Only weakness allows itself 
to be overcome. 

And, then, there was another element in the character of 
these two men that had much to do with their excellence. 
" He is the greatest of all who is the servant of all." They 
were both ministers to the people. It was for services that 
they had rendered to others that they were so honourable 
and honoured. No selfish person can be great. No one 
who strives for place and power, that he may gratify his own 



THE LESSONS OF THEIR LIVES. 



363 



ambition, can ever rise to the highest attitudes of human 
excellence. But such were not these men. "I do not 
wish for it myself ; but if I can be useful, I am willing to 
occupy the position." This was the spirit that actuated both 
men, and this is the spirit out of which the world's real 
philanthropists are made. It is those who " are at leisure 
from themselves " who are the best servants ; and it is 
these men who become benefactors, liberators, heroes. 

And there is one more lesson which the lives of Lincoln 
and Garfield teach, and it is, that the Christian is the 
highest type of man. Let all who wish to do the best with 
the life that has been given them, turn away even from our 
New World Heroes to Him who is the Light of the World, 
and whose life was the most beautiful, the most perfect the 
world has ever known. And was not He also martyred 1 
The lessons of the lives of the Presidents are the more 
impressive, insomuch as they were copies of Him ; and their 
deaths do but faintly show forth the same grand truths of 
fidelity and devotion to the very end ; for greater love hath 
no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his 
friends. 




Printed by Walter Scott, " The Kenilworth Press," Felling, Newcastle-on-Tyne. 



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